by Kelli Bowen
It’s 8 p.m. and the sun has descended west of the hill that protects our backyard. A few short weeks ago, the sun was still perched in the sky and the stagnant summer heat wafted through the dusty air. Now while wearing a hoodie and waiting for dinner, I sigh contentedly…ahhhhh…autumn, a new season, is upon us.
Well, not really. We still have Labor Day weekend to go of the official “summer” season. I have survived my first summer, technically third, in Medora. Miss E and Miss A are a week into their new school. Miss A, who started out strong, is stumbling a bit with mentions of an upset tummy before school. Miss E declared she doesn’t want to move from Medora as she now had two new friends and they’re already talking about Halloween costume ideas.
This is the first summer that I haven’t dipped my toe in a lake, haven’t booked a campsite or hotel for a summer getaway. We didn’t take in sodbusters or steam-threshers reunion, we didn’t set up a pool in our backyard and my “garden” produced only one parched and sad cucumber. We didn’t do a lot of things that we normally do. We didn’t have grandparents visit, or hire a nanny, or have family and friends over for our annual Independence Day/Miss A’s birthday bash. We didn’t create a parade float, attend a street dance, or take the boat out.
We didn’t do a lot.
We did some things too.
We saw a lot of people, some ever-so-briefly, as they passed through town. We traveled to the east side of the state and stopped in at grandparents’ houses while shuffling belongings from one border to another.
Miss E and I saw the Medora Musical no fewer than 10 times. Hubby should have a frequent-driver award for driving through the Theodore Roosevelt National Park at least once a week. We saw Joe Wiegand as Theodore Roosevelt numerous times- mesmerizing every time. We ate at the Pitchfork Steak Fondue more times than seems reasonable. Hubby and the girls swam at the local pool almost every single day.
We tested, and retested, the ice cream shops to determine which was best. Then to settle arguments, we’d test them again. We sat on the town square patio and listened to music in the evenings on the weekends. We had almost every lunch together and most dinners too. This is the first summer we can claim most of these things.
In a summer of change, as I sit on my deck in my hoodie, I sigh contentedly. A new season is upon us…and we are ready.
Kelli makes her home in Billings County with her husband, two daughters and a dog. She works for North Dakota's #1 tourist destination by day and tries to be an alright mom, wife, friend, and writer by night.
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