Summer

I don't know if I have a specific favorite season; fall brings about leaves changing color and I enjoy the cooling off before winter approaches. Winter of course brings harsh cold, but also warmth inside, it's probably my favorite season for staying in and reading a good book. Spring in Alberta is sort of like winter runoff, it takes awhile to get it all out, and by that time, we all long for the summer.

I love summers, we've had warm summers, cool summers, hot summers, I've enjoyed them all. My mood changes in the summer, I like going out with friends mostly in the summer, just hanging out. That escape of enjoying a lazy summer day outside has never escaped me since I was a kid. I have a strong affection for the story of Tom Sawyer, a boy who never took a nice summer day for granted, that feeling has never left me.

One of my earliest summer days I remember was when I must've been about seven. Record players were still being used back then, if you could believe it. I was laying around in shorts up against my dad's record player listening to music. I had the backyard door open too, I would go in and out of the house, either lazing on the carpet or the picnic table. I didn't do much other than listen to music. I remember listening to Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." and Elton John's "Live in Concert". My mom tried to make me listen to The Carpenters but that didn't take.

My dad showed me a record of The Beach Boys he had in his garage, a story I have recounted before. The Beach Boys always sound better in the summer, listening to their music on a warm sunny day is one of the pleasures of life, everyone should try it.

The beach was also an important function in summer time fun. Our family usually took a trip to Sylvan Lake at least once a year, one time I remember we rented a cabin there for a whole week. Today the lake seems crowded and overrun by tourists, maybe it was always like that, but I don't remember it being that way when I was young.

There's was so much to do at the lake, there were the amazing Wild Rapids water slides which were the main reason to go to Sylvan Lake, yet now they are overshadowed by real estate. I remember a giant maze on the beach, I use to love going in mazes as a kid, and being so proud of myself when I found the way out. There were bumper boats, go-karts, and mini-golf galore to keep us happy. Sylvan Lake was a child's paradise, today I don't even see it anymore, the beach remains the same, water levels have risen so it's even smaller than it was.

Gone are the beach side spectacles, replaced by high rising resorts or restaurants. On the far outskirts of town, there's no beach but still high traffic areas thanks mostly to the Wal-Mart, Boston Pizza, Sobeys grocery, and Blockbuster video now open.

It's sometimes too bad to think of how corporate everything has gotten, I miss the innocence, maybe it was always so corporate but as a kid I never took any notice.

Even the music I loved The Beach Boys were owned by a corporation, they brought out an image of the Californian dream, but I never thought were anything less than sincere, I still get a punch from listening to "Surfer Girl", "California Girls", and "In My Room", and it's a nice slice of nostalgia for a big kid like me who still looks at that music as something magical.

If anything, summer brings out my youth again, the smell of steak on a barbecue from a neighbour's yard is one of the oldest scents I remember, I never want it to go away. I remember watching fireworks, staying up late with friends having parties, not wanting nights like those to end. I do things like that less and less, life seems to get in the way more than it did. However I'm hardly old, new things happen, it's time to look at the future, new possibilities, new hopes, summer can bring that out as well, there's an optimism to it, it's not bleak like the dead of winter, it's a time when everything is at its most vibrant and alive.

This summer promises to be a hectic one, it's off to a nice start, I look outside and I see a chance to go out and do something, just live without a care in the world.