Making Memories

LAS CRUCES – If you really can go home again, summer seems like the time to do it.

Thomas Wolfe, in his famed novel “You Can’t Go Home Again,” coined a catch phase and philosophy that seemed to touch subsequent generations of ever-more-mobile Americans.

As we mature, it seems that many of us have a quest to return to, or at least touch base with, our roots.

For years, I’ve listened to a cosmopolitan colleague’s tales of a happy annual reunion in the small New Mexico town where he was raised. There are gatherings of family and friends that he always looks forward to attending. (I won’t reveal the name of my colleague or his town, because it sounds like a celebration residents would just as soon keep to themselves.)

It was nice to learn that the summertime is a favorite time for class and family reunions and homeward pilgrimages in my adopted homeland, too, even though the hot summer months are not the favorite season for many in the Land of Enchantment.

There is something universally seductive about summertime, and for the majority, especially those of us who grew up in colder climes, summer is the source of many of our happiest memories.

It always helps that school is out, but even if we squeeze in an extra summer term, it somehow seems that the living and the schoolwork is easier, and we often get to hold class outdoors.

Everything seems easier in the summer, in fact, from seasonal jobs to all the basics of daily life.

In Michigan, it meant we could spend the whole day in shorts and a swimsuit, or a floaty summer dress, or T-shirts and cutoffs and sneakers and sandals. Or, better yet, bare feet. Snow suits, sweaters, ski parkas, boots, mittens, cumbersome layers and anything wool and scratchy…all were a distant memory.

There were no furnaces to turn on or wood to chop or fires to stoke, unless we wanted to gather driftwood for a beach campfire, or charcoal for a backyard barbecue.

Cooking was easier in the summertime, too. Nobody wanted to heat up the house-or themselves- with complicated baking or cooking projects. Fresh salads with grilled trout, tomatoes straight off the wine with a sprinkling of salt, corn on the cob and watermelon for desert seemed perfect. It was also, it occurs to me, now, a lot healthier that the heavy traditional Midwestern diet we consumed most of the year. We went paleo before we’d ever heard of the concept, and as a result we were leaner and happier in the summer months.

Even those of us who were athletic enough to earn letters in high school probably got more exercise during the summer. But it didn’t seem like exercise: swimming, tennis, beach volleyball, canoeing and walking on sunny shores for miles and miles, with our friends or a summer love, was pure fun.

And summer romance, carefree as it may seem, may start out casually but end as a profound and life-changing experience. Don’t forget about all those June – and July and August – weddings and subsequent anniversaries.

Amidst terrifying times, we still manage to sing silly songs and do silly dances and feel free to indulge in silly fads and fashions.

I suspect even those who have survived dysfunctional families or childhood tragedies can conjure up some happy memories of bygone summers and the persons and places that helped form those memories.

If you’re determined to embark on a sentimental journey, this is the season to revive and maybe even relive the shiniest aspects of those golden days of yesteryear.

And whether or not you have travel plans this summer, it’s never too late to make some new memories with those you love, or find those old photos and souvenirs and savor your personal collection, on your own, or with family and friends.

S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at 575-541-5450, dmoore@lcsun-news.com or @derricksonmoore on Twitter.