Summer is officially over, as of yesterday, and it is always a bittersweet occurrence. The air is getting much cooler, many leaves are already turning and fall sports are well underway.

Despite all the talk about global warming, and I’m in no way disagreeing with hundreds of scientists who are smarter than me, but it has been a relatively weak summer. This came on the heels of what was certainly a mild winter.

Summer in the Tri-State is really a great time. I have so many fond memories from my youth that I have had the joy of rediscovering, so to speak, as we take my two daughters, who are 2 and 4 years old, to do some of the same things.

There are hikes at Lake Vesuvius, taking in the natural beauty that this region’s under-appreciated gem has to offer.

There’s the unique experience of walking the midway at Camden Park and enjoying the rides that have been there since I was a kid.

There’s enjoying a cool, tasty treat at one of the many dairy bars. Nothing says summer like some good hand-dipped ice cream from The Shake Shoppe or L&J.

Although many of them are gone, public pools like Dreamland are fun places to visit to cool off.

Although the calendar may say that fall is here, and it certainly is starting to look and feel like it when you walk outside, there is still time to grasp the last remnant of summer.

The season always makes me think of baseball and this has been a great one for the Cincinnati Reds, who have clinched a playoff spot and won their division for the second time in the past three years.

One of the best baseball movies, “For Love of the Game,” has a great line about trying to hold on to summer. Announcer Vin Scully is calling a game by the main character Billy Chapel, an aging pitcher who is in the twilight of his career but closing in on a perfect game.

“He’s pitching against time. He’s pitching against the future, against age, and even when you think about his career, against ending,” Scully says in his trademark voice. “And tonight I think he might be able to use that aching old arm one more time to push the sun back up in the sky and give us one more day of summer.”

None of us may be pitching a baseball game but that doesn’t mean we can’t roll up our sleeves and get one more day.

Today looks like a great one to head to the lake and make some summer memories that will last long after the season has faded.

So if you have just one more day of summer, what will you do with it?

 

Michael Caldwell is publisher of The Tribune. To reach him, call (740) 532-1445 ext. 24 or by e-mail at mike.caldwell@irontontribune.com. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeCaldwell_IT.