Savor Summer’s Last Days

By Michele Bazan Reed  |  bazanreed@hotmail.com

It’s the dog days of summer, and soon we’ll be donning sweaters, picking apples and shopping for school supplies.

But for now, the days are still long, the temperatures are still sultry and we’re moving a little slower.

So let’s take some time to savor these last sweet seconds of the season and reflect on some of our favorite things about late summer, past and present.

Growing up, my favorite thing to do this time of year was to park myself under the low hanging branches of the Bing cherry tree in our yard, sprawled on a blanket and let a book take me to another time period, or maybe even another planet. With an ice cold bottle of Orange Crush and a volume of the Bobbsey Twins series or “Black Beauty,” I could while away the hours until my mom called me in for dinner.

I loved to go the library and the 25-cent matinee at the movies on hot summer days, something my friends and I were allowed to do without parental supervision.

Sometimes I think about the things we were allowed to do— and survived quite well, thank you very much — and the overly protective mother in me shudders.

Summer also meant spending long, lazy days at my grandparents’ dairy farm, hanging out with my cousins and getting into mischief. From almost burning the barn down by trying to set hay on fire with a magnifying glass (something we read in a book and had to prove for ourselves) to the boys trying to see if relieving themselves on an electric fence would zap them, we found plenty of ways to get into trouble. After we almost “drowned” in a silo full of corn, we had to rein in our adventurous sides a bit.

Stomping on cow patties in our bare feet for good luck and crushing huge puffball mushrooms, releasing clouds of spores had to suffice.

We could be good sometimes though, and did regular chores like feeding the calves, gathering eggs from the henhouse and fetching the cows home from the pasture for the evening milking.

When we got a bit older, we would go to the Montgomery County Fair in Fonda. There were the usual competitions for animals, arts and crafts, and pies, but we headed for the midway, where we wasted our allowances on rides, games and souvenirs that rarely lasted until we got home. When evening came, we hung around the racetrack, watching the stock car racers, and bickering about which ones were the cutest. In the end, though, we had to cheer for my friend’s brother, who was one of the drivers. Another big Speedway attraction were the traveling “Hell Drivers,” daredevils that put on a spectacular show. Being good Catholic school girls, we called them “Heck Drivers,” and managed to feel guilty about that even.

One year, my aunt took a couple of us to the New York State Fair. Now for most people reading this, that’s not such a big deal, living close to the fairgrounds, but we were coming from about three hours away, so it was a pilgrimage of sorts, and only happened once. And given the amount of time we spent traveling, there wasn’t much time for sightseeing. We probably spent some time in the animal barns and crafts displays, but the only thing I remember seeing, is the Iroquois Village, as Haudenosaunee Village was called then. I was fascinated by the dancers and all the beautiful craft work. I remember my aunt bought me a little beaded coin purse, that was a cherished possession for years.

My friend, Linda B., who grew up in Fulton, remembers a similar trip with her family, who took the bus to the fairgrounds. They brought their own food —Italian cutlet sandwiches— and her aunt carried a homemade pie through the whole fairgrounds, just so they could have a good dessert.

Now that I’m older, I find myself enjoying the quieter side of summer’s end, although the little girl who loved to read under the cherry tree still enjoys a lazy day with a good book. (Not on a blanket on the ground, though; I’d never get up!) I enjoy searching the library for a good read, though again, times have changed. I seek out an ebook or audiobook from my local library through the Libby app. And that matinee? I’ll be streaming a movie from the air-conditioned comfort of my apartment’s living room.

But the lazy feeling of a day without school or work is still there.

So is the birdsong, whether it’s sitting at the picnic table listening to the sparrows chirping and the red wing blackbirds chattering, hearing them through the wide open windows bringing in the summer sounds on the balmy breeze off the river.

In these last few weeks before summer’s end, I’ll spend lazy hours just watching the Oswego River flow by my place, listening to the waves and the squawks of seagulls wheeling overhead.

I’ll watch the squirrels searching for nuts to get through the winter, and the chipmunks competing for the same treats. I’ll gaze at the bunnies coming just so close and no closer before beating a retreat to the shelter of the trees.

That reminds me of a children’s book I read to my kids where a little bunny spends the summer sitting quietly in the sunshine, just watching and listening, while all around him the more industrious animals are preparing for winter. They berate him for his laziness. But the tables are turned in the dead of winter, when the other animals are depressed by the gloominess and cold of the season, and their little rabbit friend sings them the song of summer, with all the sights, sounds and sunshine he had been gathering at summer’s end.

I hope you have a great dog days of summer, and, like the bunny, soak up lots of beautiful summer memories to keep you warm in the Central New York winter ahead.