Summers seemed to last forever when I was a youngster. Most of those long, hot days were spent toiling away in the tobacco patch, exploring the woods near our southwestern Virginia home or playing baseball with my Little League team (or with friends in some pasture field). Back then it seemed like there were about 50 hours between sun-up and sun-down, and we kids made full use of each and every one of them.
But something happened to a bunch of those hours as I grew into adolescence and adulthood. All of a sudden those seemingly endless summer days began going by a lot faster, and nowadays there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do all things I need to get accomplished. Of course it’s that way for everyone who has the commitments of adulthood to deal with, but I must admit that sometimes it seems like it’s just me.
Childhood is a special time in one’s life. It’s a time for doing chores and learning to handle responsibilty, but even more importantly it’s a time for playing with friends and just enjoying the act of being a child. Our children and grandchildren will only be able to experience one childhood, and that experience will pass by all too quickly. Let’s allow them to enjoy those long summer days as best they can because their Autumn is lurking just around the corner.
Gets shorter all the time.