Still excited by summer

by Penny Zezima

If you’re looking for a hard-hitting editorial, one that pounds its fist or even gently nudges, you’re looking in the wrong place here. I’m in too good of a mood. Why? Because it’s summer vacation time.

Note I said “summer vacation,” not “summer.” I’m not that big a fan of summer bugs, summer heat and humidity, summer sunblock. But even though I am mumbley-mumble years away from my last school year, I still feel a frisson of excitement once school ends and summer vacation begins. 

Things change subtly at the end of June. The library starts buzzing with Summer Reading Program activities; residents disappear on vacation and, subsequently, the traffic eases locally. We on the Mosquito staff go on a shortened summer schedule. And suddenly, there’s time...to read that book you’ve been meaning to get to, to see that blockbuster movie and enjoy some popcorn, to leave behind the more formal cooking of the winter and take to the outdoors, to cook and to harvest. There’s time for day trips and deep breaths.

This year’s Old Home Day turned out to be the perfect start to summer vacation. The weather was the definition of the perfect summer day: sunny with a refreshing breeze keeping everyone comfortable. I had the good fortune to be working at the Friends of the Gleason Public Library’s Used Book Sale. Child after child came up to the cashier’s table with armloads of books and big smiles, talking about what they planned to read this summer and where. Their enthusiasm took me back to summers with my children, choosing books for them to read to themselves, as well as older books for me to read to them. Many a summer morning, they built a “reading fort” out of every pillow in the house and watched LeVar Burton on “Reading Rainbow” before taking off on the day’s adventures. The freedom to take time to read when and what you wanted remains a special part of summertime to me to this day.

I’m grateful to Old Home Day for taking me back to a feeling I treasure. I wish you all a summer of freedom and time to do whatever you love.