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Carefree and careless
Ah June! It’s like that slow ascent on a rollercoaster. It’s exciting. You know what’s coming. The month of June precedes all of the ups and downs and twists and turns of summer. If you’re an oldie, like I am, you probably remember the excitement you felt as a child when the month of June showed up on the calendar. Our calendar hung on the side of the cupboard over the kitchen sink. Special dates were marked on that calendar. I remember putting a big circle around the date that marked the last day of school. June was the delicious month of class picnics to Boyd Park, class trips to the ROM, “move-up” baseball games in the park, bonfires in our backyard, field days at school, hot classrooms, daydreaming about July and August and “no more pencils, no more books”. It wasn’t until I became a SAHM I really appreciated all of the work my mom must have put into making July and August safe and fun for all of us. I wonder how many homemade popsicles, peanut butter cookies, fresh berries, lunches in the backyard, cooling off in the basement on those extra hot days and not letting the screen door slam days Mom endured. I’m sure Mom must have had many a sleepless night prior to the eight weeks of having a pile of rambunctious kids underfoot. One of my favourite memories was spending some of our summer days in what all of the “Strathburn Park” kids referred to as “summer school”, aka Day Camp. I’m now wise enough to know it wasn’t by divine intervention we were biked, skateboarded and skipped off to Melody Road School for hours of games, crafts, sing-songs and, generally, blowing off steam. Someone made sure we went when “school” was in session.
And, here we all are. The calendar has been flipped to June and we’re on the cusp of another summer break. Of course, it’s all summer for LOML and I, since we’re “no-job-having bums”. But the streets of the County soon will be filled with summer adventure seekers, aka tourists. And, if you’ve ever been a tourist, you know how your mind goes from being on-your-toes to being on-your-lounger the moment you reach the destination. I’m not saying everyone who is a tourist is as carefree or as careless as a kid who’s just been set free from a stuffy classroom, but it’s pretty close to what happens. I’ve been there. During my working career I was that “windows down, Beach Boys turned up, mind switched off” kind of tourist. I wore my flip-flops and bathing suit into grocery stores because “they’ll never see me again”. I headed the wrong way on one-way streets because I didn’t know the actual route, but I could see the destination just ahead. I may have filled my grocery cart with more marshmallows, watermelon, cookies and hotdogs than we actually needed. And I certainly made sure the Beer Store hit their target sales. I’m not saying I was rude or unaware of my surroundings, but I’m sure the local folks may have had a different take on my “tourist” behaviour.
June is the approach to the season that helps support the County when the visitors go home. If you’re a local, let’s remember to take it easy. Let’s give those visitors lots of space and a bit of latitude. Let’s be mindful of the carefree and the careless. Let’s go ahead and be a bit smug because we get to be here year round and “they” only pass through. Let’s have some fun and, just for snicks, give “County directions” when someone asks how to get from here to there. They’ll thank you for it, under their breath, when they realize there’s more than one way to get to the beach. Sometimes it’s relaxing to take the longer, more scenic, way around.
Enjoy the month of June. I know I’ll give’r my best.
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