Summer! Come Back!
Just when you’ve finally got the beach routine down, it’s time to say goodbye
to the summer again. . . “I miss you already.”
into its place on our calendars. We realize, “You’re right on time!” We’ve put aside the
children’s school bags and heavy schedules to attend to our beach bags. We make sure our
favorite Wildwood paper is in there!!, and all of the reading material we didn’t have time
for in the spring... and of course a tide chart and a puzzle book and lots of quarters for the
parking meters and the ice cream man... “Get your fudgy wudgy here!”
New clotheslines are hung up on the old rusty poles because summer is simple and we have
the time to hang out our laundry to dry. Windows are pried open to let summer back in the
musty beach house. “We’re ready!” And so are the dogs. They’ve returned to their shady
spot under the mimosa tree, taking glances through the picket fence, always ready to
welcome you back home from the beach.
Whether a hundred years ago or this day, summer at the shore is timeless. As you spent the
days sitting endlessly watching the sunlight dance upon the ebbing and flowing sea, laughing
lightheartedly with friends and family, smiling at your children playing in the ocean and
digging in the sand, summer was its familiar and islandy self, as it has always been.
But then comes the day out of nowhere like an approaching thunderstorm when we turn on
our TV set and “What? A back-to-school commercial already?”
Now, the calendar says it’s mid-August... We go to the front door and “change” is standing
there knocking. It looks like an unwelcome guest. The first school bell of the year is about
to ring as Indian summer responds with a warm smile, “I’m here!” But wait, “I’m not ready!”
When you’re a beach lover with sea and sand in your soul and you live for low tides and
shelling and abundantly sun-shiney days, and you haven’t even made a dent yet in all of
that beach reading material you put in your bag, you take one look at the calendar and
with your finger count the number of days left and you’re pleasantly reminded of the
coming months and you say, “Change is good.”
Labor Day might signify the traditional farewell to summer, but on the island we know
differently. Indian summer is a splendid time of year. The days are still long enough for
after-school beach trips. They are glorious and sunny and the ocean is like bathwater.
They’re sublime and tranquil, unveiling themselves in pink and orange sunsets across the
bay and sea. They are serene as a day trip on the calm blue sea or a bicycle ride through
Grassy Sounds. They’re festive! and most of all, gloriously made by God.
In the Wildwoods, summer never ends. It’s the ever-so-happy time of year.
Happy Spring!
Publisher, editor, and artist
The SUN by-the–sea, , WILDWOOD, NJ
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