come tuesday
well! that’s it! if you made it to today, you survived everyone’s annual worst ever night of sunday scaries (on a monday). congrats!
labor day was such a mile marker when i lived in the northeast- the tuesday after truly was freshly-painted school buses, a new crispness to the morning air, sweating the deposit return for summer shares, and mass chaos in the in-box. a page, definitively, turned. there is a different cadence to the seasons for me now, which feels less new with every year, and just when i get comfortable with it, i am sure will shift again. i happen to like change! while i miss the LIRR more than one might have predicted, the rhythm of these passages is comforting, and the sunscreen still plentiful.
maybe it’s because i spent the long weekend with teenagers or perhaps it was the news of jimmy buffett dying. it could even (probably) be as simple as this old lady is always a little sad to see the tanning days come to a close, but i got to thinking about summer and how memories are made over the last few days.
i am not exaggerating when i say that the box set of boats, beaches, bars, and ballads was a real soundtrack to my adolescence. i saved up a lot of turtle coins for that one. i can hear one verse of a pirate looks at 40 and think of mr. wilson’s grinning face, dancing with the gilleys and bookers on green turtle, and hopping easily with julia into a dinghy with my dad. only the really lucky ones know cade today, but also knew him with a hang bang, a 13-foot whaler, able to recite every word of son of a son of a sailor (still can). with jimmy singing his heart out in the background during those hazy days, the rum punch snuck up on you, the crushes came and went harder and faster, and you got the feeling that nothing would ever be better than a full moon, hard-earned tan lines, and a spring tide with all your best friends.
at my age, many of us are working hard to create memories for the people we love, especially the generation behind us. it is a scheduling behemoth to get mason’s teenagers and their cousins to their beloved spot in northern michigan- but ya know what, all seven made it this summer on their own schedules and time. because it is part of their summer DNA! hauling young kids to the beach? SHIT SHOW. but how else will they know the taste of sand/sunscreen/boiled peanuts/salt water and want to make sure their kids also know it some day, too? no matter where your summer magic takes place, i applaud everyone working hard to make it happen. planning is expensive, time-consuming, and can annoy people. but i’ve never done it and then heard, “i’m so sad we did all this.” eat the boiled shrimp! try the slalom! (AGAIN!) book the ticket to europe, and order the pasta while there! when life changes, i’ve found myself holding close to these moments and find such joy in sharing them with the ones i love.
i have definitely reached the point in the calendar where i do not wish to run into my dermatologist in the publix, but man, i did have a good one. i appreciate every single person who made my summer feel special, particularly those who helped tina feel like the queen of weque (she was!) and i offer a special cheers to everyone who is kicking off, or has kicked off, the new school year. it is not easy to get to the finish or start line, that perspective incredibly dependent on the age of your children 😵💫. and to my parents in heaven, where, surely, no sunscreen is required: yet another thank you for all you modeled and gave us through the ordinary and the magic that was our childhood. oh, and i just added meat tenderizer to my tybee pantry! ya know, august.
enjoy jimmy here, talking and singing to his younger daughter about one of my favorites, little miss magic, that he wrote for his older daughter (savannah!) while living on st. barth’s. he was a good man.
Sometimes I catch her dreamin' and wonder where that little mind meanders
Is she strollin' along the shore or cruisin' over the broad savannah?
I know someday she'll learn to make up her own rhymes
Someday she's gonna learn how to fly
Oh, that I won't deny.
who’s already got a plan for summer 2024? 😬 🕶 🌴
