Autumn has always been my favorite season, but since becoming a Dad, it always arrives with a little sadness. The promise and potential of the summer have faded, and half of what I intended to do with my family never got completed... or it was done without me while I'm away at work.
I once heard that you only get 18 summers to spend with your children, and this was already our SEVENTH summer together. Just seeing that we're quickly approaching the tipping point brings more than just a few tears to my eyes.
I'd like to think the three of us here made the most of our summer together. Like most people, I suppose, I always think about what I could or should have done with the little one to make things more memorable for her.
Since my line of work takes me away from home for days at a time, the regrets caused by the passing of time begin to pile up, and lately, that pile is sky high... no pun intended.
My Grandfather always said the older you get, the faster time goes. He even joked that he was so old (he lived to be 100) he shouldn't bother getting out of bed in the morning. I've read that he was correct, in a way.
While time itself never changes, our perceptions indeed do.
Unless CERN is messing with things, but I'll let you and Sinbad look into that yourself :)
When you're young, the days at school seem like they take forever. It's all relative because, at a young age, we have very little to compare those hours to. At an older age, 8 hours seems short compared to the past 50 years, but those same 8 hours, when compared to the past 8 years of a child's life (especially when most people can't remember before the age of 4), seem much longer.
It's all perception.
Of course, in 2026, we also have more things that occupy our time.
How many times have you pulled out your phone to "kill time," and next thing you know, an hour has gone by?
Summers went fast when I was a kid, too. I'd have my whole summer mapped out when school let out in June, but before I knew it, it was the middle of August, and our family was heading for two weeks of lakeside fun in Maine as we did every year.
We'd come home from our vacation and had only a week before Labor Day when school would start again.
At work, I have periods where I'm forced to sit and do nothing, and that's when I get my best thinking in. As it always does this time of year, my mind has been wandering to summers of years gone by.
My last "carefree" summer was 1998. I hung out with my friends. We lived, breathed, and practically ate pro wrestling that summer.
The next year, in 1999, I got my first real job working for a landscaping company. By "company," I mean it was a guy with a pickup truck and several lawn care contracts, and I was hired to work the heavy backpack leaf blower and weed trimmer.
There was a nasty heat wave in 1999, just like there was this year, and I remember going out to work long days in over 100-degree weather until most of the lawns were so dried up and dead there was nothing left to cut. I loved the rainy days that summer. He'd call early in the morning and say we were rained out, and I'd have a free day off, but honestly, I'd rather he had called out on the 100-degree day and gone to work in the rain.
Every summer after that, I got a seasonal job to earn some pocket money and pass the time. In the summer of 2005, I got my first paid flying job, and I've only flown planes for a living ever since.
Before that, though, I worked a variety of odd jobs, ranging from convenience store cashier to stocking shelves at a craft store, doing janitorial work at a giant Little League baseball complex, and caring for dogs at a boarding kennel.
Speaking of dogs, we lost both of ours early this summer, just weeks apart due to different health issues from old age. It's been weird not having a dog in the house after 14 years, and I miss them more than I thought.
Especially Piper. She was a really, truly good girl.
Rocky the Flying Morkie was my little buddy for most of his life, but the last few years were such that he wasn't really Rocky anymore, and it was more relief than anything when he crossed that rainbow bridge.
But Piper... yeah, she was a good one... She was just six weeks old when we got her. She was so soft and so tiny, and we often say that SHE picked US because she did. She was truly "our" dog. Rocky would have happily lived with anyone that fed him, but Piper loved us unconditionally. She stood watch over our baby after she was first born and never left her side.
She loved us, without question.
We loved her just as much.
The end of summer often makes me think of the Billy Joel song "Famous Last Words," and this year is no different.
So as we "close it down for the season," I'd like to share a collection of links to various pieces about summer in case you missed one or want to reread them to prolong the season just a bit more.
Thanks for your continued support here at YesterYear.
See you on the flip side of Labor Day.
5 Movie Theater Memories From Summer of 2004
5 Movie Theater Memories From Summer of 2003
5 Summer Music Memories
5 Hit Songs from Summer Movie Blockbusters
Summer Wrestling Memories
The Wonder Years and My Ideal Summer Evening
The Summer I Flunked Math and Fell In Love With The Airline Industry
25 Things That Make a 90s Kid Think of Summer
The History of Carvel Ice Cream
A Salute to "Salute Your Shorts"
Saved by the Bell's Malibu Sands Beach Club
Summer Wrestling Memories
The Wonder Years and My Ideal Summer Evening
The Summer I Flunked Math and Fell In Love With The Airline Industry
25 Things That Make a 90s Kid Think of Summer
The History of Carvel Ice Cream
A Salute to "Salute Your Shorts"
Saved by the Bell's Malibu Sands Beach Club
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Comments
I start to feel the same way once we get past the 4th of July. It feels like a dead season for me from then until we hit Labor Day when my mind kicks into high gear anticipating fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
ReplyDeleteHey Jeff.
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry to hear about your dogs and the end of summer approaching for you guys. There’s nothing I can say to lessen the blow regarding your beloved dogs, but as for summer ending… if it makes you feel any better, our summer’s been over for almost a month now.
It’s been rough for me the last month or so - the kids are great, but this year there are lots of changes on the curriculum side so that’s been a pain. This is actually the first time in a while I’ve had time to sit down and read through your weekly (or sometimes more often) article. Unfortunately, it might be this way for a while still, until I can figure out a better way to do the new stuff. And don’t even get me started on the hurricanes this year…
Anyway, your comment/reasoong this week about time being about perspective and how it goes by so fast as we get older is spot on for me. A few years ago I even did an impromptu mini-lesson with one of my students after a discussion we had on the topic. I even drew a picture for him to show the changing perspectives of the same period of time as you age. In the end he nodded his head and agreed… then called me “old”.
Anyway, I gotta go to work now (because again… my summer ended over a month ago). Cherish every second you have with your daughter - you don’t get the full 18 years because they start developing their own lives in high school.
Hey! Good to hear from you! Sorry to hear this year has been so difficult for you. Hopefully it turns around when you get the new curriculum figured out.
ReplyDeleteIt's wild to me that warmer climates go back to school so early. Wouldn't you rather be off in the dead of summer? (obviously you don't make those decisions) It's part of why the North East goes back after Labor Day.
When you have time, I'll have plenty of stuff for you to read! Two a week in October and December to be precise!
Take care out there!
We used to start after (or at least near) Labor Day when I was a kid. I don’t know when they changed it, but it was sometime between when I graduated and when I went back to school to become a teacher almost two decades later.
DeleteAnd as for the two-a-week articles… at least it’s during the school year. I already told you that during breaks I use your articles to help me keep track of what day it is, so the sneaky Friday ones throw me off! October might mess me up a little because we have Fall Break, but that’s only one week. Winter Break in December might be a bigger issue. Do you do this on purpose just to mess with me, Jeff???