Who says summer is over?

By John Toth

The Bulletin

As I recently rolled my shopping cart up and down the aisles in one of the big box stores, I passed by Halloween and Christmas displays. What’s the rush? It is still summer.

The only difference is the date on the calendar. Those holidays can wait a little longer. I know that retailers have to put up those displays and start cashing in on the holiday spirit, but I’m still in the summer spirit.

Labor Day weekend used to be a sad time for me. After watching the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon on and off, it was time to prepare to return to the real world.

That’s when I replaced my unstructured days of summer with the structure of high school or college. I left all my summer buddies behind, promising to stay in touch.

I exchanged hanging out at the swimming pier with sitting in a lecture hall, trying to figure out what the calculus professor was saying. It was easy for him. He wrote the text book we were using. I had a little harder time. I did take his book with me to my summer job, but it just sat in the corner, collecting dust. I was busy doing other things, like hitchhiking to the next town to grab a pizza and Coke.

I crash-landed from the endless summer as I registered for classes, telling myself that this is for the best (it was), but in my mind, I was still playing tennis with my best buddy in summer camp and losing to him every time but once.

He still can’t believe that I beat him. He was good; I mean private lessons good. I was self-taught after purchasing a cheap racket from Woolworth.

We both worked at the live-away camp. I was there to get away from the big, dirty, hot city in the summer. He was there to have something to do in the summer other than roaming around in the suburbs.

Once I got past my end-of-summer blues, I focused on snapping back into the real world of having to be responsible again. Jumping a few decades ahead, the end of summer does not really have to be the end.

Summer temperatures continue, and peak travel season is over. Vacation booking prices are dropping, crowds are thinning out, and kids are back in school.

For people like myself, summer continues and gets even better. I am light years away from Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas. I don’t even want to hear about those yet.

I’m too busy still enjoying summer – the endless summer along the Texas Gulf Coast, where the hot summers are long and cold winters are very short and mostly mild.

There are a few weeks in January and February when winter is even harsh around here, but I have found a solution for that also - a cruise to the Caribbean.

I have timed it just right twice so far. When it was freezing here, I was swimming in the ocean in 85-degree weather. That’s not bad for winter. Even when my timing is not exact, it’s still nice to get a little summer in the middle of winter.

Those of you who are like I was in my earlier years and are mourning the end of summer, rejoice. It does not have to end. It can go on for as long as you want, right through Christmas.

It’s not a date on the calendar; it’s a frame of mind.