Today is the first day of Summer according to the calendar and astronomy. When I was growing up, we always thought of the first day of Summer as Memorial Day, but that was more likely because Memorial Day signaled the last day of school and the start of the long-awaited Summer vacation.
We didn't know about the science:
In the northern hemisphere, the longest day of the year (near June 22) when the Sun is farthest north. In the southern hemisphere, winter and summer solstices are exchanged. The summer solstice marks the first day of the season of summer. The declination of the Sun on the (northern) summer solstice is known as the tropic of cancer (23° 27').
The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, respectively, in the sense that the length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day is a maximum for the year. Of course, daylight saving time means that the first Sunday in April has 23 hours and the last Sunday in October has 25 hours, but these human meddlings with the calendar and do not correspond to the actual number of daylight hours. In Chicago, there are 15:02 hours of daylight on the summer solstice of June 21, 1999.
Summer was the time of going off to camp or to our summer cottage at Conneaut Lake, of vaction travel. It was the time of playing outdoors, of bike riding, water skiing, of hanging out at the local pool or going to the drive-in (hopefully with a boyfriend who drove a convertible). It was the time of meeting friends at the Dairy Queen and neighborhood block parties. Summer meant fun. It was a time of picnics, slurping big slices of watermellon and then having seed spitting contests, it was hot dogs, corn on the cob, and wearing shorts.
Now I live in California, where it is Summer 11 months of the year. The kids barely differentiate between Summer and Winter. I love the modern age, the age of technology, but when it comes to Summer, I admit, I'm nostalgic for that gentler time in a small town in Pennsylvania.
Related:
Solstice sun clouded over at Stonehenge
SALISBURY, England, June 21 (UPI) --
About 17,000 people attended the summer solstice celebration at Stonehenge in Britain as bad weather kept additional thousands away from the annual gathering.Wiltshire police prepared for at least 20,000 visitors for the nightlong party that leads into the sun rising on the longest day of the year. Only four people were arrested and police said it was a fairly quiet night.
The Mirror reports people flock to the ancient site for the optical illusions as the sun peeks over the Heel Stone of Stonehenge.
Although the rain stopped falling by sunrise, the clouds lingered and blocked the view.
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