Dog Days of…

The heat builds. Humidity rises. Sun beats down with persistence. It is August. It is summer in Chicagoland. Each year this month is unrelenting. Hot. A good time to get out of town and feel cool country breezes, hill breezes, small, wooded lakes.

I recall this season of summer embraced in one month. Whether in California, Massachusetts, New York or Illinois, this is the month of heat.

When I was a school kid, this was the last month of summer before school restarted in September. Today’s calendar informs me that many kids are already going back to classrooms. I’m not sure when this changed, or why. But I do absolutely know we marked Labor Day as the end of summer and the eve of the new school year.

Not so today. No, the kids get out in Spring, sometime around the end of May or early June, then return to school in August. In my day no schools were air conditioned unless they were situated on the desert. Today schools are often air conditioned, so it doesn’t matter if the months of June and August are still counted as part of a regular school year. Summer school was a dreaded thought. Hot. Stigmatized as academic punishment. No air conditioning and most uncomfortable.

I know times are different. Today computers are everywhere. Most students have their own. Most of us have air conditioning and the pandemic taught us how to keep in touch without leaving our homes. So, the Dog Days of August are more survivable these days.

Besides, this August in Illinois has been pretty kind. July was more the Dog Days month this year. August so far has been gentle, cooler, and more moderate in the rain department. I wonder what September will bring.

August 17, 2022

  

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