Isn’t there always a day when we can feel the waning of summer and the onrush of the fall? Summer joys become even more sweet as we move inevitably along. What were your summer joys this year? Among mine, while traveling in northern Michigan:
- Joyous unbridled teens leaping repeatedly from a lighthouse breakwater into cold deep water.
- A half-ton of sugar stacked on the sidewalk outside an island fudge shop, ready for the kettle.
- A sixty-foot wiener and bun atop a hot dog shop, with ketchup, mustard, and several pigeons on top. Were we in the town of Chewandswallow, with meatballs next to fall from the sky?
- Blackberries. Red Haven peaches. Bakeries with their own cherry pies.
- Glimpsed tee-shirts, this one worn by a small quiet woman: “They Never Suspect The Short Ones.” Another, speaking the truth about small boat handling: “I’m Sorry For What I Said When I Was Docking The Boat.”
- Luxurious resplendent gardens, both public and private, rivers of blooms.
- A boat named Vattenstuga, which means “water cottage” in Swedish, as a handsome gentleman explained upon inquiry. And another called, cheerily, Hakuna My Yacht’A.
- A Louvre in Legos. When I asked about the maker, young shopworkers exclaimed: “He used to WORK for Lego! He’s a Lego MASTER!”
- A Scout troop, in wildly disparate adolescent sizes, raising flags at an historic fort, solemn-faced and taking it seriously.
- And road signs on a bike trail. “Breathe. All We Have Is Now. Relax. UR OK.”
I slowed down.