Anticipation

Years ago, I imagined that, unlike the earth traveling around the sun in an ellipse, I’d think of the year as a square; not a rectangle, but square with four equal sides.  Starting the beginning of September, the top of this imaginary square ran through the fall to the end of December. The right side went from January first to May 31st, the bottom part is the whole month of June and the left side is the months of July and August. You can see it has some relation to a school year. Just after Labor Day, the new school year would start. The first part of the Fall Term ended near the holidays. The next part was the Winter-Spring Term beginning January 1st and ran to the end of May with a short vacation around Easter. Then summer arrived with its joys and freedom from routine, books and tests. In most schools, summer vacation didn’t start until nearly the end of June, and lasted two whole months until Labor Day. Those last weeks of school were torture. The weather was warm and so conducive to out-door life. Most of my time when not outside, but trapped in a stuffy and hot classroom, was spent looking out the windows, longing for summer vacation to begin. My family had a summer home further out on Long Island, close to a bay and just miles to a bridge and the beach. We spent lazy days swimming, sailing, biking, playing tennis and golf with family and friends who lived nearby in the summer but far away in the winter. It was a glorious time to explore our surroundings and slowly grow into adults.