A ride into the past

Tonight I decided to take a bike ride.

My first bike ride in years, and yes I suppose it is true that "You can't forget to ride a bike"

I pedaled across the streets and sidewalks of my childhood, basking in the ghostly humid dusk of early August. It's interesting how quickly a pleasure like bike riding is lost in the glow of late adolescence when the efficiency and allure of a car overtakes the old reliable bicycle.

It amazed me how the old wreck of simplistic machinery was able to evoke such vivid images of my past...Particularly the years before middle school. Something about summer always seems to hold a window to the emotions of yesterday.

As I drifted up and down the roads my mind remembered what summer meant as a child.

Long summer days, when time went slow and the joy of being young never ended. The nights spent swinging in the tire swing and whacking hockey balls against the stairs, playing video games in the crisp air conditioning, and of course riding bikes.

Back then I wished August would never come, because that meant school was almost starting again. There is something so sacred about nights of late summer. August meant finality, that all good things must come to an end, and yet even in the waning moments of summer there was still hope that there was still some summer enjoyment left.

Summer is so unlike any other season.. The days and nights are long, and the days and weeks bleed together in one sticky hot bliss, and yet it all seems to come to an abrupt end quicker than we want it to-- particularly as kids.

Sometimes I feel it is the only real bittersweet season, It lasts long enough to build such awesome soul embedded memories and yet it has such a definitive end.

As I've grown up I've began to look forward to school starting much more than I ever did before, but for some reason as I rode tonight that stirring childhood thought of the end of summer reminded me so vividly what it felt like to cling to those final moments.




Sam