Beaches are still crowded with sun worshipers, kite flyers, paddle-boarders, and swimmers, Campgrounds at the state parks are jam packed. Friday and Sunday nights find the highways bumper to bumper.
The Sunday newspaper is filled with back-to-school ads. In some parts of the country, school will start this month. Not in Michigan. By law, they are not allowed to start before Labor Day. Tourism is such a big industry that the state congress declared it must not be shortened because of education.
I was a teacher back in the olden days (before my children were born). We never started school before Labor Day. We also didn't end until Father's Day. Michigan summers do not follow a calendar. Summer begins well before June 21st and could end in October. Schools here are not air-conditioned. Pity the children--and teachers--who must work in 80+ degrees.
August is vacation time for many families. Get in one more camping trip or weekend at the cottage or whirlwind cross-country sightseeing trip--aka by my kids as the "encyclopedia" vacation. To their dismay, I would research the area we were to visit and share my findings in the car. After all, I had a captive audience. An audience who would rather read Sweet Valley High or Stephen King in the backseat than listen to Mom expound on the highlights of the region. They still haven't forgotten our visit to the Corn Palace in South Dakota or Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Or my rapture over the dining room at Mount Rushmore where Eva Marie Saint "killed" Cary Grant in North by Northwest.
They would rather have gone to 6 Flags. In fact, our trip would have been much shorter if we'd taken them to Cedar Point.
Now, Hubs and I wait until after Labor Day to vacation. Who needs crowds and hordes of tired whiny kids ruining a historic sight?
How did you spend August when you were young? What about now?