Another Summer : A Glorious Summer Season Comes to an End

When we look back on the summer of 2012, which is coming to an end within the next few days, we’ll think of an endless stream of warm, sun-drenched days that made it about as perfect a summer season as we ever could have asked for. Indeed, it was even more than perfect. We can recall only one weekend that was more or less a washout, the last weekend of July, but even then, it did not interfere with plans to be outside. We had seasonably warm weather, but nothing like the heat waves that affected the rest of the country to make this the hottest summer on record (and last year ranks second). Best of all, the ocean breeze was fairly consistent to cool us down and the ocean water was as warm and as inviting as we ever can recall.

On the other hand, as glorious as these past two months have been, they went by all too fast. It seems as if it were only the other day that we were writing about the upcoming Fourth of July, with the entire summer ahead of us. But as the ancient Romans said, “Tempus fugit,” — “Time flees.”

Our late publisher, Andrew P. Quigley, who led as full a life as anyone we’ve ever known, was fond of saying, “When you look back on your life, you realize that no matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been, all you really have are your memories.”

We trust that this great summer season has created a host of indelible memories for our readers and their loved ones. But now it is gone, like sand slipping through our hands. (Though now that we think about it, for better or worse we aren’t as meticulous as others are when it comes to keeping up our cars — and invariably,a trigger for a summer memory in the middle of winter is when we see some beach sand in the corner of a floor mat where the kids sat with their sandy feet after a beautiful day at the beach.)

We wish our readers a safe and fun Labor Day weekend and hope that it will put a fitting exclamation mark on the wonderful summer of 2012.