Time Keeps on Slippin'

Even though the days are getting shorter and the nights cooler, it is not that easy forgetting the past summer. I seem not to be the only one that has been looking back at that time of year, several publications have run columns for people to reminisce about their favorite summer.

When I think back among the summers that I have had, it is very hard to place my finger on which one was the best. It is kind of like asking me which of my kids I like the most. They are all special, they are all unique and the are all memorable. To me summer is not that of time but of place and attitude. I spent my summers from the late fifties until the early seventies at our cottage at Grippen Lake. Those years where filled with 'firsts' which make them so memorable. From my first kiss, to that exhilarating feeling of dropping your ski when you first slalom ski. It was evenings just spent with your friends late at night watching the sky as it filled with falling stars. It was meeting people from a different walk of life who turned out to be the closest friends I would have throughout my life.

I have tried to think of a year that was far and beyond the best and I can't do it. The summers run on in my life. One becoming a blur of the next. There was the last summer we spent at the cottage with my Mom before she died, and the look on my children’s face as they first played on the beach. Then there was it the summer of the UFO sightings, or the first summer I spent there alone with my two best friends (now that was a story in itself). I remember sitting there with Paul on one side and Mark on the other seriously debating whether or not we should buy new dishes because the other ones were used. Thank goodness for the kindness shown by 17 year old girls.

Corn roasts, barbecues, fireworks, the canteen, the fresh cold, cold water from the creek, the double and even triple dares we made to see who cold stand the longest in the creek's naturally ice cold water. The loons, the swims out to the Rock, the sojourns to Treasure Island by boat at moonlight (running out of gas also works in a boat). The first beer... I still remember my initial revulsion at the taste. At least I'm glad that changed. The enchanted walks late at night with the girl you wanted to hold hands with...but never did.

As with most people, music marks time in my life. And summer and rock n' roll go hand in hand. I mean who could go through a summer without a Steve Miller album? I hear songs that instantly conjure remembrances of my summers, the things that happened, yeah, the things that were. Can it all be confined to the Summer of Love? No. There are always movements in style, there is always accounting for tastes. But we move on, we graduate, we keep adding to our collective summer memory. It is a constant flow.

I was at a party a while ago, it was hot, there was quite a mix of people there. People my age, people older, people younger, much younger and the music was blaring! I was just groovin' with the tune, a little Bob Seger to make the feet move. My wife and I danced with each other the way we danced back in '76 when we met, oblivious to everything and everyone. But suddenly the music changed and I heard a driving base beat start up, followed by a repetitive back beat that was then accompanied by falsetto singing. A roar exploded from the crowd and people, mostly young people rushed to the dance floor. A crowd of gap mouthed people were edged out of the way by people, young people, wanting to dance to the insipid beat of 'Stayin' Alive'. Disco apparently still lives. As the other survivors of the seventies sat around and watched this phenomenon, I could only shake my head.

As I age though, the series of first has slowed to a trickle. Instead of a summer of exploration, I seem to be getting comfortable in watching my children's summers. So here we are, just kicking back. Summer’s gone, autumn’s here and I’m already looking forward to the next one. And to help me along, I've just popped Steve Miller into the CD for a couple of tunes. "Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' into the future..." It certainly does Steve, it certainly does.