Back to Summer

“Back to School” sales are on around the county, not to mention the country, and they have been since the early morning hours of July 5.

For the Fourth of July is the new end of summer – or it just seems like it.

Once upon a time, such as not that long ago, “Back to School” sales didn’t appear until mid-August. Now, these sales come on strong a month earlier, draping thoughts of school over the height of summer.

It gets to August 1 and it feels like summer is over.

Thoughts of Halloween now, anyone?

This development surely grew out of the Christmas in October trend which gave rise to Valentine’s Day by the second week of January, and now we’ve got seven weeks of “Back to School” before the majority ever go back there (at the end of August).

It’s a life ahead of ourselves we live.

So how about a “Back to Summer” sale?

Something to celebrate what season it really is right now. Featured items can be Coke in 16 oz. glass bottles, bun-length Ball Park franks and four-inch car stereo speakers.

It’s time to let droplets of the Snake River dry off your skin before someone comes running with a blow dryer.

Time for thoughts of Evinrude and Zebco to banish all notions of Houghton-Mifflin and Scholastic, Inc.

Time for wood to just be what docks are made of, not college-ruled paper.

Time for August, and leave the everything after.

For if we don’t sometimes celebrate and completely live in the season we’re in, we diminish that season.

It’s true that life is what happens while making other plans, and by implication, life is not the other plans. Buying five-tab notebook dividers in July is other plans, not life.

What if all life was in making other plans?

We could have honeymoon packages include seminars on investing in kids' college educations. Eighth-grade parties could feature information on how to register for selective service when you're 18.

Dessert menus presented during the main course?

Handouts in new-car showrooms on how to dispose of a junk vehicle?

It’s time for “Back to Summer.”

Sale begins now. It ends when someone hears an actual school bell.

Garth Meyer

Gazette Reporter