Happy Labor Day weekend
Are you planning to have fun this weekend? I am. Of course, my idea of fun is pretty sedate: going out with friends for a meal, going to a dance performance, going out for a walk and enjoying the fine weather—“fine” till Monday, that is.
Labor Day is a sort of bittersweet holiday. When I was young I dreaded it because it meant back to school, although it was always nice to get those new pencils and pens and erasers and bookbag and clothing. But on the other hand it was the gateway to autumn, one of my favorite seasons then and now.
I can remember wearing new wool skirts and sweaters to the first day of school after Labor Day. So anxious to wear new duds that I didn’t mind (too much) sweating in the September 85 degree heat. Yes, new pencils, new loose-leaf binder. What simple pleasures.
My favorite season is also fall. Indian summer is the most delightful time of the year, at least for me. I love the crisp air, the bright sun, the glorious colors of the autumn leaves.
I have wonderful memories of autumn days spent fishing cold trout streams with leaves of gold and crimson floating on the water. Memories of not caring whether I caught any fish or not. Just being on the stream was enough. Sadly, those days are in the past. My fishing buddies have all flown West and I’m no longer safe to wade on slick rocks in fast water. My fishing, when I do it, is now done from a boat, which I hate. Ah well, time flows on and life changes, but autumn leaves will still be there to brighten the fall.
Some of our children, and their spouses, and their sweet elderly dog, are with us for the long weekend, a rare pleasure in these scattered, hard-working days. The sunset’s unbelievable, a gentle hymn of quiet water reflecting the glowing sky, a sliver of bright moon hanging in the sky, reflected in the still water. The air’s cool enough that, sitting outside by the water, I have a sweatshirt on and a wool blanket over my legs and a warm dog on my feet. Nevertheless, much as I love fall, I’m not ready to concede the summer yet. We’ll have a few more weeks of paddles on the water in bright days, and cool nights and evening fires, before we have to retreat indoors for the long cold months.
Yosemite in early Sept, post Labor Day is a good time especially in the high country (Tuolumne Meadows), Crowds are gone, weather is very good, only the waterfalls in the Yosemite Valley are diminished. It’s on my list to go back soon. We were last there in that September (2001). The Park Rangers came around to notify the campers what had happened on that morning.
Sounds nice, enjoy.
Down here in Florida, Labor Day means college football and keeping an eye out for storms out of the tropics.
Only six weeks of summer to go.
Funny Neo, that you bring up pens. Because there was a new one I saw. They call them tactical pens now though.
Well, when I was growing up in Kentucky, we had already been in school for a couple of weeks when Labor Day came, so I always enjoyed it as a 3 day weekend from school. After I grew up, and had moved north to CT, I started to view Labor day with a sense of foreboding- while I enjoy Fall, I hated the Winters in CT, and Labor Day sort marked the boundary for me between warm and cool/cold. Now that I live further south in TN, I have returned to enjoying Labor Day- here, the warmth usually lasts right into early November.
Happy days for all of you.
may I put this very moving story to read and learn:
She ‘loved life:’ A grieving father wrote openly
Is that going to save you from a tactical eraser? When someone tries to rub you out?