Can We Talk 2

August Rituals

Prompt: Write about your favorite thing to do in August. Do you have a favorite tradition to do in the summer/ winter depending on where you live that you look forward to every year?

         In August, I usually panic that summer is almost over and I haven't done some summer things. I think it's ingrained from the school days which I haven't seen in decades, but from which I have not escaped. In August you finish vacations, buy school or work clothes and office or school supplies. The days get shorter, but the weather is still scorching.

         If I haven't bought an ice cream cone all summer, this month it has to be done. It's not the same in fall or winter. There has to be a picnic or cookout somewhere. I haven't had one since last year when indoor entertaining was still frowned on. Unfortunately, the door is closing on indoor entertaining this year, too.

         When I was a kid, we had family fishing trips. We don't do that any more, but I did drive to a county lake one day this week where we used to go with my grandparents, who had given up driving by that time. It's still a small park, no camping or picnicking allowed, just boating and fishing. But there are homes built all around it now. It was a mild sunny morning and memories flooded back.

         The last of the tomatoes have to be harvested. This year I didn't have any but one Roma and a handful of tiny Asian pear tomatoes, thanks to the prolific deer in my neighborhood. I didn't grow anything else, but basil and cantaloupe which the deer ate before any melons appeared.

         I'm not buying any new clothes this year. I'm not working and have too many out of date clothes to give away or toss.

         I will still feel wistful in the late afternoon as the trees cast longer and longer shadows across the lawn. I recall watching those shadows from the window of a college study lab. Now, there's no excitement of a new school year and seeing my friends again, but a twinge of that anticipation still resides as fall approaches. The end of summer tells me life is flying by.