End of Summer

When I was young, back in Michigan, Labor Day weekend was he last of the "big three" (the others being Memorial Day and the 4th of July) when our family would go camping and celebrate summertime.

Before we bought into Rolling Hills, we would often go to Ludington State Park. There, we would catch fish in Lake Hamlin and collect blueberries on the Island Trail. At Mud Lake in Rolling Hills, we would catch fish and collect blackberries and apples.

We always had enough to eat.

The thing that always struck me on Labor Day weekend was nostalgia. Summer was coming to a close and very soon we would be back in school and experiencing increasingly cold weather.

Since I arrived in San Francisco in 1971 I have become accustomed to a very different climate. Here, it is cold in summer (fog) and warm in the spring and fall. Winter is normally the rainy season but we often have droughts.

I realize all of these tendencies are threatened by climate change. Humans have altered our environment so radically that who knows what kind of places these will be in the future.

But for now, for me, Labor Day still signals the end of summer, even though here it is more the beginning of summer, actually.

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