Beach girl

September 1 always made me sad when I was growing up at Lake Mohawk in Malvern, Oh. It was the benchmark day that signaled the end of summer, the impending end of lifeguard paychecks and summer's easy parties.
I've left my childish things. And now, in retirement, I have moved my beach soul to an island roughly the size of the lake. It is as if one place is real and the other is the image pm the Polaroid backing torn away.
As the leaves in Ohio turn colors and fall away, in the Caribbean, we lose leaves to heat stress and wait for the storms that will cool our heat stroked souls. In Ohio, we would buy plastic bags to freeze the last of summer's crops. Here, the Zip Locks are for sealing vital papers and small electronics from the inundations of rainy season with or without hurricanes.
As Hurricane Earl approaches landfall elsewhere, we can only wonder if we have done enough to prepare for the season ahead. There's no looking back as there was in Ohio, when I was but a girl.