It's already the end of July and summer seems to be slipping away through my fingers like so many grains of sand. Partly responsible for feeling like this are all the various things that have been going on in my own little world in recent weeks. Nothing like lots going on to make the time fly. Remember when you were a kid and summer vacation seemed to stretch out before you like an endless sea on the last day of school? What little is left of my inner child still secretly misses those wonderful long summers.
Summer's beginning and end is more rigidly determined by the weather than the others. The summer solstice may come and go but if the temperature doesn't rise above 75 degrees for an extended length of time, it's not really summer. A kid's summer is that magical time of youthful freedom that is wedged between the afternoon of the last day of school and the morning of the first the following September. The calendar may say it's the first day of summer but if school is still in session (as if often was when I was a kid in New Jersey when we had to make up "snow days"), it doesn't count. Classes begin to gear up long before the last official day of summer and we all know that the minute you're back behind a desk, summer is over. Period.
I have always loved summer. I have a summer birthday and I've always been glad to to have it land on a day that's nowhere near any major holiday. It's always been a special midsummer day just for me. I enjoy the warm weather when I can wear less clothing---or none whatsoever in my not-so-secret life. I especially enjoy the freedom from socks and closed shoes on my off time. I love hanging my laundry out on the line to dry in the fragrant sunshine. It's most pleasant to eat dinner outdoors which has been cooked outdoors; something we do almost every night. I like the extra hours of daylight in the evening to linger after dinner in the soft, warm air.
These days, school begins so much earlier. My son will be returning to high school to begin his senior year on August 22nd. Late nights out and late mornings sleeping in will become a thing of the past for him. This date is a full two weeks before I ever had to return to the classroom. "Yes, but they get out so much earlier than we ever did," my husband is always quick to observe. This is true but the way I look at it, as long as there's still a student in the house, summer will suddenly turn into fall on that first day of school. This isn't too much of a problem for me, however. I adore the fall and of all the seasons of the year, it is my absolute favorite. But that's another story.
Clipart provided by http://www.designedtoat.com/summer2.shtml
2 comments:
I'm just swinging into enjoying summer myself. I love summer, too. I love to sit outside and not have to wear a sweater against a chilly breeze. I love watching the mountains shed their white coats as the sun dissipates their mantles of snow. I love cooking outside, eating outside, and just BEING outside...puttering in my garden, or, as I am now, sitting in a chair on the deck clicking away in journal land. Life is good! Lisa :-]
Oh! I absolutely love it when someone out there thinks and feels like I do! You just took me right back to Murphysboro, you know my mystical "summer place" and I have to thank you for your great entry today. I too miss that child that I was on the last day of school with the summer spread before me but I am not too envious of the child that is now having to face that first day back in school! Thanks for the memories!
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