Beautiful Day in Duluth

Today is one of those beautiful summer days here in Duluth that I’ve told you that I love, 70ish, sunny and a breeze blowing. (Really like that breeze!) It was a bit more humid than I like, but the humidity was bearable because of the breeze. This evening is especially lovely. On my drive to and from work I drive along Lake Superior, and it was the bright blue that I like so much…oh so beautiful.

I heard from a friend from Texas that today was over 100 degrees there. Gee, I don’t think I could handle that. We hit 100 twice this summer, very, very unusual, and we all thought we were going to die! Give me the 70’s any day. Of course, Texas is probably like Pennsylvania, they know how to handle the heat, lots of air conditioning and central air. Maybe they hibernate inside on those days too? I feel sorry though, for all those that have jobs outside that have to work in that heat, that must really be hard.

We are noticing that it is August here, as the evenings are getting shorter every day. It’s dark before we know it, and that’s always a sign that fall is approaching. Everyone in Duluth is scurrying around trying to get those walks in, camping trips, swimming, weekends at the lake, because they know that the summer is soon ending. I didn’t realize until today just how close Labor Day weekend is, and the coming of the new school year. When you don’t have kids that age, you kind of forget that families with school age children are extra busy shopping and readying the kids for school. (I’m glad I’m over those days though, the kids always wanted more clothing than I had money to buy, it was always a stressful time for me). Now, I feel for my daughter who goes through that with the start of each school year. Kids today want so much more than we did. I was never able to “demand” new clothes. I had to be happy if I got one new dress, maybe two if I was lucky. I did get a new pair of shoes, but they had to last ALL year, and a new pair of tennis shoes, to last the year. New socks and underwear was a must, but what fun were they? I think our main excitment was getting new notebooks, pencils and maybe a new pack sack (or book bags, as we called them then), and a new lunch box, if you carried your lunch. We were in fourth grade when our school got a cafeteria. Until then, I carried lunch. The cafeteria food we did not like, however, my Mother said she couldn’t pack lunch for what the cost was, so we had no choice, cafeteria it was. Now, I’m getting sidetracked. Anyhow, today’s boys and girls get so much more to start school with! I think the parents have a harder time saying no than our parents did. Of course, maybe it was because most parents when I was growing up, did not have a credit card. If there wasn’t spare money, there wasn’t any shopping, period! Anyhow, good luck to all you Mother’s out there that are shopping for the beginning of school!