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. Labor Day marked the end of that.

Before we bought into a family camp called Rolling Hills with 24 other church families, we would often go to Ludington State Park way up on the Lake Michigan coast. There, we would catch fish in Lake Hamlin and collect blueberries on the Island Trail, roast marshmallows, swim and hike. 

At Mud Lake in Rolling Hills, we would swim, catch fish, play Capture the Flag or softball and collect blackberries and apples.

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

But once I arrived in San Francisco in 1971 I encountered a very different climate with a different set of rhythms — cold in the summer fog and warm in the spring and fall. Winter is normally the rainy season but we often have droughts so it can be sunny for weeks at a time.

All of these tendencies are now at least subtly threatened by climate change. Humans have altered our environment so that who knows what kind of places these will be in the not-too-distant future.

But for now, Labor Day for me still signals the end of summer, even though around here it is more like the beginning of summer. Still, the main feeling that strikes me every :labor Day is nostalgia.

And I can’t help but wonder about that.

(Note: I’ve published versions of this essay several times over the past 17 years.)

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