Waning Summer Days and Waxing Poetic

I can't believe it is Labor Day weekend. Where did this summer go? Where we live people are still using their golf clubs as they talk about ski season. I just want to stop time and cram a whole summer into this weekend. And my version of summer, like most peoples, goes back to childhood. So here it is:

1) Go to the beach, get tossed around by waves and stung by jellyfish. (Most summers were spent on an East Coast beach.) The best I can do here is go to our sports club pool, maybe get splashed a lot by kids as they come off the slippery slide and burn my bare feet on the concrete deck. Actually, maybe I should go down the slippery slide for the wave effect. That is if the weather cooperates. And does Old Bay Seasoning reduce the sting of the burn just like it did that of the jellyfish?

Go to the pool, let kids splash me, go down the slippery slide and burn feet. Done!

2) Attend a crab fest. Now this one I can cross off my list. There are a group of folks here in Utah that grew up in Maryland, Delaware or the Jersey Shore. We order a bushel of crabs and have them shipped out for an end of summer crab fest. 36 hours from the Chesapeake Bay to our tummies. We go a little upscale for my taste, no newspaper on the tables - brown wrapping paper. And some decor too. Wine, bottled water and beers; it used to be just beer. One of the hosts made hush puppies which I could go on and on about (I just love them.) There is some competition regionally. I uphold the SMIB (Southern Maryland In-Bred) traditions even though my parents were not from Maryland at all but upstate NY. Well - we could give my father credit for being a Marylander, being a Naval Academy grad and all; thus Mom gets a default claim too.

Old Bay seasoning rules the evening for SMIBs as do paper towels and the aforementioned newspaper. The Jersey Shore folks (not Snookie or her lowbrow friends) somehow eat everything without the huge mess, wearing white pants even. The Delaware people are the good conversationalists while the Marylanders don't talk, don't leave the table and don't really move come to think of it. The SMIBs in particular could do this for hours on end.

Crab fest - done! Need I say more?

3) Roast marsh mellows on the beach and make s'mores. This I can do in my backyard except again the darn beach part. I guess we could turn on the sprinklers or maybe put on one of those soothing "Nature Sounds" Cds, looping ocean noises. That might be the better way to go, more green.

Mmmm, s'mores. I need to go to the store for fresh supplies. Done!

4) Complain about the masses of people at the beach and the lack of parking. On a much smaller level we can easily do this here. In our town Labor Day is known as Miner's Day and it is a HUGE deal. Miner's Breakfast in City Park, a fun run, a parade down Main Street and the Running of the Balls.

The Running of the Balls is an event where they release something like 2000"sponsored" tennis balls from the top of Main Street in a race to the bottom. The winning balls get prizes for their "sponsors" and are a source of local pride. We learned the hard way not to take a lab to this event. They go crazy trying to chase the balls. The Brown Dog aka the PC Purebred couldn't care less. But I digress. The local festivities create parking nightmares and masses of people in small places. And that doesn't include the whole weekend's festivities such as the famous sheep herding dog trials or Swiss Days.

We've got the complaining covered. Done!

5) Run around with sparklers at the end of the night while the adults visit and have a cocktail. The S.O. bought Tiki Torches this summer so I am thinking lighting them counts. It is times like this that he totally channels my father who never thought it was a party or holiday unless you had Tiki Torches going. And we could have a fire going and enjoy a cocktail or maybe some leftover beer from the crab fest (keeping the SMIB traditions going.)

So it is a more adult version of the sparklers and the same visiting traditions of years past. Done and done!

6) Go to bed exhausted and sun kissed from all of the activities. Exhaustion is easily covered, I can do that well. Sun kissed is not that politically correct but I have tons of sunscreen and will sneak in a little summer color one way or another. It'll be a fitful sleep, just like the old days. Dreaming of ocean waves, Maryland crab, having a visit. All the best parts of summer for me.

Exhaustion and appearance of sun kissed. Done!

I feel much better about my summer having jotted all of this down. So it is possible to recreate a childhood summer or Labor Day weekend, even 2000 miles away, minus the ocean. Now if we could fly in the brothers for the ritual family fights, food fight and softball games I'd be set.