Fences

A single robin.

Daffodils and hyacinths bursting from the warm soil.

Chipmunks waking from their long winter naps in search of food.

Longer days and shorter nights.

The weeping willows starting to bud.

The fences of North Beach being removed.

All signs that summer was on its way at long last.

On the shores of Lake Michigan, the fences being removed from North Beach was as much a sign of summer’s arrival as the traditional signs of spring.  The fences were placed on the expansive beach each winter to manage the snow and wind that would soon be arriving.  Naturally, when they disappeared, it was a sign that the cold winter was nearing an end.

In the city where I grew up, on the first sunny warm day the beach would draw its residents in like a magnet.  The street leading to the beach would be filled with cars blaring their music.  There would be bikini-clad girls, with skin as white as snow lying on the warm sandy beach.  There would be children, buckets in hand gathering up sand to make sand castles.  Parents would be relaxing nearby enjoying the glory of having escaped from their houses allowing their children to use up the energy they had stored through the long winter solace.  There would be Frisbees flying and perhaps a game of sand volleyball or soccer.  There would be few who would venture into the Great Lake as its temperature would still be frigid, but those that did would experience the exhilaration and breathless feeling you get when you enter the cold, thick, water of Lake Michigan.

It would be the start of the summer along the lake.  Time would be spent with the rhythmic sounds of the Great Lake playing in the background.  Many lazy days of summer would follow until the fences would arrive again.  Days where romance would bloom, skin would be warmed by the ever-shining sun, campfires would be built when the sunset and secrets and stories would be shared with friends that would span a lifetime.

I will always cherish the time spent by Lake Michigan.  This past summer I was able to introduce the lake to our grandchildren.  We played in the waves and built a sand castle and collected rocks to decorate the structure we built.  The years melted away and the rhythmic sounds of the lake reminded me of a lifetime ago when I first discovered the fences that disappear right before the summer comes.