I was just taking a walk through the neighborhood when a group of three little girls, two of them in sundresses and one still in her bathing suit, rode by me on their bikes. Their skin was still sparkling in the sunshine from the residual pool water on their backs and necks, their swim gear dumped into the white wicker baskets attached to the front of their bikes. How so very sweet.
Remember the anticipation you had as a child just waiting for that final day of grade school? Regardless of the degrees outside, never mind if anything was actually blooming yet, to you that was the day. The day summer officially started.
In Israel we called it chofesh ha-gadol, the great vacation or the great break or the great freedom! Yeah, thats the one! Freedom from school. That is what summer was to us.
And there is a certain sense of freedom to those long languishing days of light and warmth. They are calming too, arent they? Just being outdoors, the sunshine, the air, the soothing warmth . . . oh, that summer summeriness, it really is so soothing.
And fun. I just adore summertime!
Shaking flowers from your hair, catching orange and red lit fireflies in glass jars by night, biting into the velvety flesh of scarlet watermelon and then slurping the juice oozing and dripping down your chin, crunching black-burgundy cherries, homemade popsicles, and enjoying blushing peaches and apricots at peak flavor.
Cutting open soft green pouches, like little feminine purses of figs, only to reveal soft and silky purplish-pink threads of densely flavored flesh inside.
And the vegetables! Excuse me, but can we talk about that corn on the cob?! And all the sweet deep flavored varieties of farm fresh tomatoes. Ah, the tomatoes! Not to mention the perfuming herbs! That garden fresh pesto . . . Well save the luscious and deep purple and red and magenta berries and simmering fresh homemade jams or piled high pies of color for another time.
What about the pungent, freshly mowed grassy emerald lawns? And the seaside days, reading outdoors and relaxing or playing amidst waves like a child again? Comforting afternoon thunderstorms? Balmy, breezy evening strolls? Lemonade? BBQs? Glorous hikes and bike rides? A sunkissed glow? Swinging swings? Boating? Minty mojitos? Sandals? Sunglasses? Camping in tents? The smell of suntan lotion? And what about the simple pleasure of wrapping your hands against a waffled cone of fast melting ice cream? I know, right?
I just loved seeing those girls, barefoot, with their scraped knees, riding by. Hmm. Perhaps it is not just the children who anticipate and adore summer.
Maybe that part of us, wanting to soak up summer, remains with us forever.
You know, that pent up sense of the interminable wait, the interminable last days of school, one day letting lose and exploding into the joy of summer.
Why Summertime . . . it is nostalgia herself.
So, dear readers, enjoy it all!
