Dear Reader:

Yesterday was Father’s Day and the longest day of the year-the Summer Solstice! For the Lowcountry the predicted wash-out day was delayed, long enough, from the remnants of the tropical storm that hit Louisiana, to give everyone time to drag out the old grill!

The official first day of summer is also the day that at ” high noon” one’s shadow is the shortest that it will be all year. * Actually I didn’t try this since I feel I am shrinking quite nicely-with or without shadows -every day of the year!

Mid-summer Day, made famous by Shakespeare arrives later this week. Historically it marks the mid-point of the growing season, halfway between planting and harvest. Traditionally it has been celebrated by feasting, dancing, singing and magical potions of love! The latest sunsets of the year will occur several days after the solstice!

And apparently right on Solstice as experienced by Walsh, Mollie and family in New England!

Each summer I become a reader ” maniac ” -I start with all the new beach novels ( fertile time for authors) and then start exchanging books with other avid friend readers. Yesterday Anne and I are met at Five Loaves to exchange more books. There is no ordinance that a book exchange must center around food-but it certainly makes it more enjoyable!

And that brings me full circle on the importance of savoring and remembering fun or exciting events from each summer to share with your peers on the first day back at school in the form of stories.

It is the traditional ice-breaker activity that each teacher uses on the first day of school. Nothing is worse than listening to others tell about all these exciting vacations their family went on when your family didn’t go on one!

So by second grade I had ” wised ” up and was always ready to choose a funny true anecdote that took my peers’ minds off vacations since we spent several summers with Grandmother Wilson when mother was recuperating from her hand amputation.

The funniest story dealt with Ben and his ” fake” snake he had won at a carnival-it was made from color beads held together with a string. He put it on grandmother’s front porch and got me to scream ” snake”! Grandmother came running-shoo’ed us away -grabbed the hoe in the corner and promptly began chopping it up. With the string broken… all the parts began rolling off in different directions! Ben was screaming ” You killed my snake ” Grandmother!”

The kids would all laugh and no one thought to ask me about a summer vacation! The beginning of my love of storytelling !

So until tomorrow… stories unite us in ways nothing else can!

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Sorry about yesterday! I was almost finished with the blog when it started jumping to the point I couldn’t finish it-the T- Mobile man said it might be the screen starting to go! Hoping not… but we will see what we will see! Those squirrelly computer gremlins are always up to something! Please excuse any errors today-exhausting day yesterday!