Sad to say, the summer of 2024 rapidly is coming to an end.
We’ve passed the midpoint of what’s known as meteorological summer — the months of June, July, and August — and we now have less than six weeks to go before the Labor Day weekend.
Summer thus far has been a delight for those of us who like it hot and humid. This past June was among the warmest on record, with chains of hazy, hot, and humid days.
Our most vivid memories from our childhood are of steamy days spent with our family and friends on our boat, at the beach, and on the playgrounds, listening to every Red Sox game on our small transistor radios when Curt Gowdy was the voice of the Red Sox, who were cellar dwellers in those days before the 1967 Impossible Dream season.
Later in young adulthood, when we played in the summer basketball leagues in Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop, and Everett on listless summer evenings when the temperatures were still in the high 80s, the day’s heat would radiate off the asphalt, adding another 5-10 degrees to the playing conditions. But that heat always felt so good — there’s no better feeling from the natural high you get when you’re drenched in sweat after a tough game — and then going with your teammates and girlfriends to the Banana Boat on Revere Beach or to Richie’s on the Parkway in Everett for a well-deserved post-game banana split or slush.
And then as we got married and had children, summer days seemed endless, with the kids always on the go, running around on the sand and splashing in the water.
Summer also is a time for personal time. As much as we enjoyed being with friends and family, we also delighted in our alone time. When we were children, that meant building our sandcastles or playing “war” with our soldiers in the sand, separating ourselves from reality, lost in our own world of make-believe.
As we moved into adulthood, the perfect “personal” day meant a comfy chair with a good book or magazine on the beach or in a park, or hanging out in the water on a boogie board or surfboard for a couple of hours, waiting for that perfect wave.
So however you may define your perfect summer day, our advice is to make the most of it while it’s here. Summer is fleeting and the chance to make memories for ourselves and our families will be gone before we know it.
In the words of the ultimate summer song by Nat King Cole:
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
You’ll wish that summer could always be here