Summer Send Off…

This is it. Labor Day weekend 2024.

10 years ago I started a post the exact same way. It is amazing to think that was a decade ago. I wanted to see if the highlights I wrote about felt dated or changed by the passing of time but I enjoyed reading it now as much as I enjoyed writing it back in 2014. It seems appropriate to commemorate what has become a year of anniversaries and reflections with a return to that format.

So without further adieu, here are a few good summer lessons I want to remember when we are deep into the fall and winter to come…

Lessons Learned…

While antique shopping

Not everything is as it appears.

The more you look for the rare and unique, the more you shop for your “collection” the more you can appreciate the journey some of your future pieces have been on.

Sometimes that item is there to trigger a memory and other times it sparks an interest in something you would have never previously considered a part of home decor.

Lessons Learned…

When you follow a sign

Although this would be a great intro for the 90’s Ace of Base hit “I saw the sign” I am talking about a literal sign.

The Sunday I finally followed the “Plants” banner I had been driving past every week and discovered one of those precious little greenhouse and gift shops on a long standing family farm.

The Erb Family Farm & Greenhouse is the type of small business worth making the country drive to support and I was glad to have taken a beat to go down that road.

And while we are on the topic of taking a drive…another random Sunday I followed the winding old highway 22 outside of Cecil to buy a loaf of bread and got more than I imagined.

An insight into another small business, an ambitious young girl and a family raising birds and rabbits.

Lessons Learned…

While getting older

30 Days of June came and went.

My birthday came and went.

There were a lot of rainbows to go along with all of the rain.

But it rained too much for my garden. With the exception of the compost pile. Last summer’s leftover veggies, discarded pumpkins and autumn decorations turned out an unexpected bounty. I think the lesson in here has something to do with planning for a drought and getting a flood but I also think it has to do with never underestimating the messy parts of your garden. Like in life, sometimes the things you nourished and cultivated and had all the hopes and expectations for are the things that don’t work out. But what you may have considered to be a throwaway, ignored and rooted in scraps, fights it’s way into existence against all odds.

Lessons Learned…

From car shows

Mopars…

Have…

More…

Fun!

Lessons Learned…

In a small town

The more I am around young adults that have grown up in a suburb of a nice city the more I realize how rare the appreciation for small towns extends. While rural kids can admit they envy the conveniences of a larger town and poke fun at their own “drive your tractor to school” rituals, city kids are less likely to try to see the positives of this alternative lifestyle.

I highlighted some of my sentiment in a piece entitled: Why I think these images of the Clintonville car show capture everything you need to know about this small town event.

“It’s a place where a shiny new car will be welcome and admired but a classic tractor also feels right at home sitting among the show cars. This is how you know you are surrounded not just by a farming community, but by folks who take pride in what they do.”

I also leaned in heavy on nostalgia watching my niece and her friends ride bikes down the small town streets of Bonduel on the Fourth of July.

“And here’s the thing about it- the thing about holding onto a tradition that could so easily be let go- it’s watching it mean something to the next generation.”

And I reminisced about the former staple of small town Shiocton, The River Rail, and how it played a role in a pivotal memory for an 8th grade graduating class last summer. A memory that is going to evoke those future revelations of- “I was lucky to have grown up in a small town.”

I was lucky to grow up in a small town. But I can understand that to some it feels like an alien concept. Small is often associated with less. And why would you want less?

Because it’s true what has been said over and over again-

Less is More.

(Unless it is more summer, in which case, more summer is more summer!)

I’ll end this the same way I did back in 2014- with a lesson I must remind myself each day the sun goes down earlier and earlier-

“And don’t worry about what you might have run out of time to do…there is a new season for making memories right around the corner!”

See-ya later Summer!