Summer is good. It begins with promise and concludes with
the next stage of fall. The tulips have disappeared and the tomatoes are ripe.
Last summer was hot and dry while this summer is cool and pleasant. That’s the
story of the marvels of the natural world of summer. We have had no sinkholes,
no washout floods, and no tornadoes this summer.
Summers have brought changes into my life. This summer I
have been settling into my new house after leaving the condo where I lived for
ten years. It is the first time in my life when I moved alone. When I bought
the house in March, a foot of snow was on the ground. When I moved into it
during the Memorial Day weekend two months later, the grass was green, spring
flowers were blooming, and children were running through the neighborhood. Very
good.
On the first day in my new home it dawned on me that most
of the rooms do not have ceiling lights. I had a few lamps and quickly bought
more. One bedroom continues to be lit by an artist’s clamp light attached to a
bookcase. Other events at home included new draperies and curtains, the flooded
basement (due to rain) that kept carpet wet for a month, repairs to the leak in
the kitchen sink, and new carpet for the living room and hall. I am sure that
more is to come. Old houses are not perfect.
Other summers have produced changes. Here is one. My
parents had a cottage at Clark’s Lake in the woods of Door County while my
brothers and I were growing up. We lived in it all summer in 1951 instead of
spending time there and at our year round home. We were beginning a new
adventure. We moved to Sturgeon Bay and my father started a new radio station.
The cottage was home until the parents found a house to live in when September
came. For me it was a good summer of swimming in the lake, walking in the
woods, swatting mosquitoes and living in a cottage without plumbing. That
summer my life changed as I enrolled in a new school in a smaller community
than the one we left in suburban Chicago, and I made new friends. More happened
after that, but it wasn’t summer any more.
Another memorable summer with change was my wedding and
new life with Rick. My mother and I spent the month of June preparing for the
wedding, then the big day came, and after it was over, Rick and I went off to
Milwaukee to live after a honeymoon in New Orleans. Our small apartment in Milwaukee
was near a park. I went to the park often because we had no yard, and I pushed
the neighborhood kids on the swings. This new married life was the biggest
change of my life so far. My maternal grandmother and her sister were living in
Milwaukee at that time, which was a plus. I have always loved my family. It was a good but different kind of summer
that ended with my resuming my education at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
I enjoy scavenging berries and apples each summer. Last
summer’s drought diminished the harvest considerably. This year I found few
raspberries and blackberries, and the apple harvest is just beginning. I have
gone to Washington Island twice this summer and had a trip to Savannah,
Georgia, at about moving time. I planted bushes, flowers, tomatoes and zucchini
in my small yard. The neighbors are friendly. The yard has been populated by
young rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks. Summer is good.
