The Turn

Today is my 71st birthday, one that I never imagined I would reach, but here I am, very much alive, in relatively good health.  As always on this August morning, I am reflecting on "the turn".

When I was a little girl, on summer evenings my mother would take my sister, brother and me to the playground at the end of Elm Street in our hometown of Temiscaming, Québec. We'd walk up the lane and down the little hill, sometimes "swim" in the small rectangular wading pool and always play on the monkey bars or the big wooden swings. Around the time of my birthday, darkness would fall suddenly, seemingly much earlier than only a few days earlier. I began to think of my birthday as "the turn" ... the day summer faded a little and fall stared us in the face. After August 10, evenings and mornings cooled. Lake water temperatures declined and school supplies made their appearance, welcome to some kids but not to me or my siblings. We all dreaded the day after Labor Day and the beginning of another interminable school year.

For a few years when I was a young teenager, I celebrated my birthday at John Island Camp near Spanish, Ontario. There, "the turn" was even more apparent. Birch leaves were yellowing and the wind blowing off Lake Huron gave presaged winter blizzards in that beautiful, primitive location. Later, when I worked at the Temiscaming waterfront, I noticed that kids left for home earlier in the afternoon and were less inclined to return for an evening swim, when the shadows of rocks and trees darkened the water way before sunset.

This is my second birthday in the "new" house, and I'm pleased with the house, grass and patio, a small space that is gradually coming together. The sun is rising later and I turn on the light when I get up at my usual 5:00 a.m. In a summer of drought, we're grateful for rain, and I'd be happy to see a shower on this usually perfectly sunny and hot August day. Not much chance we'll actually have any more rain than the couple of inches that fell over the weekend.

Over the years, I've sometimes talked about the"turn" phenomenon and fear I've ruined the otherwise perfect month of August for those who took note. In Minnesota, winter never seems to be more than a weather forecast or two away, but today I'm pushing "the turn" out of my mind and enjoying this great summer morning.