Alex Hernandez and Mike Gonzales wore identical outfits on Wednesday – no shirt with a pair of shorts and athletic shoes.

They were not pushing for a new men’s wear fashion. But with the mercury pushing the century mark on the first day of summer, it was the practical thing to do as far as they were concerned.

Hernandez, who will be a sophomore at East Union High School in August when the new school year begins, opted to don a lightweight pair of sporty shorts while mowing the family’s front-yard lawn at around 10 o’clock in the morning.

Gonzales, who just came back to Manteca after finishing college in Southern California, wore a loose pair of khaki shorts and left a trail of flying dust jogging next to a field of grapes on East Lathrop Road next to Ed’s Rockery near Highway 99, one hand holding his wadded navy blue shirt.

A smiling Gonzales said he didn’t mind the heat which, at just a few minutes after 10 a.m., was already quickly climbing the 100-degree level. Actually, he said, “now is the best time to do it (jogging) – early in the morning.”

He tries to go jogging everyday “just to keep fit,” said Gonzales who did not appear to be sweating a storm despite the physical exertion he put into his fast running clip. Perhaps his athletic activities during his student days had something to do with his body’s heat resistance.

For the teen-aged Hernandez, he said the valley’s heat was oppressive even at 10 a.m. “Super hot” is how he described the weather lately. Asked what he likes to do to cope with summer’s hot spell, he said, “swimming in a pool.”

When asked the same question while working under a direct hit from the summer solstice’s noonday sun washing shop windows at the Stadium Retail Center, Jose Garcia smiled without pausing from his chore and thought awhile before responding to the question. Unlike mower Hernandez and jogger Gonzales, the Sunset Janitorial & Sweeping Service worker had on a pair of light-colored pants with a white tank underneath a short-sleeved dark shirt over which he wore the company’s neon-green vest with wide indigo stripes around the waist and over the shoulders.

Finally, as he ran the wide squeegee across the soapy glass pane, the glare of the hot sun striking his prominent cheek bones, the still smiling Garcia simply said, “Just deal with (the heat).”

The forecast calls for a somewhat cooler high of 98 degrees today before dropping to 82 degrees on Friday and 79 degrees on Saturday. The mercury will start climbing again on Sunday.