Where I live, in a small beach community a few miles southwest of the Los Angeles airport, we haven’t even begun to have a summer yet. Our normal June gloom days of low clouds and chill are still going on even now on the first of September. I’ve already heard complaints from the school children – how can we go back to school already, we haven’t even had summer yet? Sure we’ve had a few warm and sunny days, but hardly enough to qualify as summer weather.

I grew up in the Midwest and I remember the distinct demarcation of the four seasons. And somehow, right after Labor Day, summer was definitely over. We had to begin wearing sweaters and thinking of taking our winter woolens out of storage. I looked in my closet this morning, and I felt no such urge. I could wear the same clothes all year. My lightweight woolens work for our chilly evenings, my cotton t-shirts serve me any time of the year, and I choose from my hordes of jackets and sweaters not for the warmth but for the color and style. Only rarely do I need a coat in our so-called Fall and Winter, and only rarely have I opted for sleeveless or spaghetti-strap styles during our summers. We don’t even have an air conditioner in our house. We’ve lived here over 30 years and never needed one.

So, I feel sorry for the kids going back to school because they’ll probably have to withstand a few late-arriving hot sunny days in the next few weeks. I can just see them gazing out of their classroom windows wishing they could be at the beach instead. But, that won’t last long. For all of us here, the summer that never was is officially at an end.