Ryan Trares: Hanging onto summer for dear life

Trares

The morning air is getting crisper. Goldenrod and asters are blooming in the garden. The sun is rising later and later in the morning, and those long summer evenings have been truncated.

I can feel it, that tinge of anxiety settling in the pit of my stomach — summer is at an end.

While the increasingly popular opinion is that fall is the best season, with the return of jeans and sweatshirts, trips to the apple orchard and pumpkin-spice everything, I’m steadfast in my love of the hottest time of the year.

There’s probably some residual attraction left over from my childhood. Back then, summer meant days spent in the pool, hours-long bike rides all over town, and late-night movie sessions any time we wanted.

As an adult, those experiences are more of fleeting joy. But there’s still a different feel to the months of June, July and August. I love the packed weekends and blooming gardens in the weeks following Memorial Day weekend, when the summer has so much potential.

The feeling of sitting on the back patio on a hot July or August night, with just a whisper of a breeze coming through, is exquisite.

Now that Anthony is in school and had a taste of summer break, he gets it too. We spent the past few months packing up our chairs, umbrellas, swimming trunks, coolers and dozens of other things heading to the beach or the pool when we could find time.

Over the campfire, we melted marshmallows to make gooey, sweet s’mores. Something so simple as grilling hot dogs and hamburgers brought a smile to our faces. Visits from the ice cream man, free community concerts in the evening, baseball games — every day held potential to be great fun.

And sure, I could do without the sticky, oppressive, feels-like-a-blast-furnace heat of a July day. But the solution is as easy as turning on the backyard sprinkler or sipping on a cold drink in the shade.

So I refuse to go without a fight. Fall may be encroaching, but this is still summer’s time. I’m pushing past the pumpkin spice coffee, Oktoberfest beers and Halloween candy at the store and heading right to the lemonade and discount pool toys.

There’s still so much I want to do, from backyard campouts in the tent to Saturday afternoons reading in the sun. A few more days by the pool or the beach have to be in store, right?

When the calendar pushes into September, and we’re past Labor Day weekend, I’ll begrudgingly accept my fate and slip down the slope leading to winter.

Just don’t make me give up yet.

Ryan Trares is a senior reporter and columnist for the Daily Journal in Franklin. Send comments to [email protected].