There’s Something About Summer

I think it originates with childhood.

Along the same lines is Winter. The snowsuits and the feeling of waking up to a snow day. The hush of the snow covered world, the hot chocolate and the watching of fat snowflakes as they fall past your window. The twilight as you’re still outside, soaked to the skin, red nose and cheeks. That last slide down the snowbank.

(Ahh, just thinking about it is making me cold!)

But Summer…sweet, sweet Summer.

When I think of Summer, I think of warm nights where you sit on the porch into dark. You don’t need a sweater, and you don’t need to put the light on. You descend into the night on a darkness that breathes. Crickets and frogs, fire crackers in July, the neighborhood kids playing kick the bucket.

I think of the house with the windows and doors all flung wide open. The buttery sunshine that plays on the floor. The fan that you sit in front of when you’re hit full force by the heat and humidity that come with Summer. You’re constantly wilted and sweaty, but isn’t it good?

I think of the beach in the evening, after they stop making you pay to get in, and the worst of the heat has gone. Hot dogs, hamburgers, italian sandwiches with potato chips, macaroni salad. And the mountains of sand in the bathtub after you get home.

Summer is for (what else?) Summer Camp. Where you giggle in the darkness even after repeated reprimands from the counselors. Campfires, and doughboys, and silly songs and mosquitos and the craft shack and swimming lessons.

Summer is also for canoe trips. Where you pitch your tent on the shore of the river, and it’s SO SO dark that you can see a billion stars and the twinkling fireflies. Where you are SO SO far from civilization that the only noise you hear is the water and the hum of insects.

It’s like comfort food. Only it lasts a whole three months.

As I got older, I entered new phases of life. Summer jobs, college classes. And now, as Summer starts this year I sit in an office and look out the window and yearn to be frolicking in the grass or setting up a roadside lemonade stand.

Summer won’t ever be the same, but, goddamn, when the sun comes out and the days get longer, and I can step outside without a coat…I know my time has come.