Summer Time and the Living Is

When you live in a place that is defined by winter, you do not take summer for granted.

People here in the UP of MI live the summer intensely.

Several of our neighbors turn their garages into summer houses. They have large, permanent, custom-made screens they fit over their garage doors as soon as the snow stops, which usually is mid-April. It’s not screen weather until mid-June, but they want to be ready. They don’t want to miss a single day outside.

Helen and I had breakfast on our back deck this morning. We wore hooded sweatshirts, since it was only 55 degrees, but it is summer, and we do not intend to miss a single moment when the deck is habitable.

The flower growing season is intense in the land of winter. We must have a higher per capita rate of flower-selling “garden stores” than any place else in the world. Most of them are tents. They are not “fly-by-night,” though. They appear in the same place each year. Their business starts off brisk in May and keeps getting stronger as the season progresses.

They sell more hanging baskets of flowers than any place else in the world, I’m sure, even though the baskets are quite expensive, because the deer can’t reach a hanging basket, especially if they are on your porch or deck. Even the most casual gardeners are experts on what deer will and won’t eat.

The kids keep a careful eye on the old-fashioned A&W, with actual carhops. As soon as it is open, there is not a single slot open from early morning until late at night. A drive-in diner is a summer thing, and we don’t want to miss a single hotdog or frosty mug.

There are parades and festivals and farmers markets and picnics and swimming parties and outdoor concerts and car shows and fireworks. Every day! You can take your pick of three or four such events any day you wish.

We are identified by winter, but we LIVE the summer!

In these later years of life, summer days and winter days get mixed together. Some days we have the energy of summer. On other days we move with the slowness of winter. When a summer day comes in the years of winter, get out your garage screens and your root-beer mug and live like summer!