Lighting Up the Unoffical End of Summer

The final day of Summer is September 21st. I cherish every day of Summer, and that's why I loathe the phrase "the unofficial end of Summer." Until it's over, it's Summer. Every year around this time, I lament the same thing.

But for this one time, I will reference the phrase in a good light. And by "light" I mean the annual luminary lighting at my campground. It's an "unofficial end of Summer" tradition.

It's a really cool event that the owners came up with. On the final day of the Labor Day Weekend, they enlist volunteers to place about an inch of sand into the bottom of a white paper bag along with a tea candle.

Then, the volunteers load up pickup trucks with the bags and place them about 10 feet apart on every road in the campground. I'm not sure how many bags that comes to, but it's got to be well over a thousand. That's quite a job.

At dusk, everyone lights the luminaries placed on the road nearest their campers. Everyone comes out and walks (or rides golf carts) around the campground to enjoy the unofficial end of Summer. It's beautiful and sad at the same time. Some will close up their campers for the season, and many will only be back for a couple more weekends before doing the same.

For me, I will be back every weekend until the end of October no matter what the weather will bring. May 1st, 2017 will be a long way off.