A Table Topic at a Toastmasters meeting that I went to tonight asked the speaker what is a prominent sign of summer was to him. She thought that bugs were the most prominent feature of summer. Yes, summer has a lot of bugs, but to me summer means blinking or flickering light. These come from various sources.
Fireworks characterize summer. They come on July 4, the American day of independence. Fireworks come in many forms, including spinning pinwheels of light, sparklers, roman candles, and rockets exploding high above into sparkling floral designs that fade out and fall to the ground. I usually don't go to public fireworks displays because of the enormous traffic jams they cause, but I do run at night on July 4 to try to find private fireworks parties near my house. Every year I find something.
Fireflies are another light of summer. When the late, mild summer nights come, the blinking bugs show up under our trees and around our yard. They signal summer to me and are somewhat nostalgic, as they remind me of the summer of 1960, when my family, passing through Virginia, stopped one night there and my brother and I caught two jars of fireflies.
Summer brings thunderstorms with their own blinking lights - lightning. Lightning is frightful, but I like to lie in bed at night when a storm comes, flashing its lightning in my window, blinking all the windows on and off. Distant lightning in an otherwise warm clear night is definitely a sign of summer for me, as are majestic thunderheads in the sunset.
There are also the stars of summer. The Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb, and Altair rise overhead on late summer nights, and Antares and the Scorpion dangle their stinger to the horizon in the south. It's too bad we can't see many of the stars on these short, warm nights because humankind has chosen to light up the night with lights of its own, most of which are unattractive: blaring auto dealership and ballpark metal halide lights, garish high pressure sodium peaches on stalks along the highway, and neighbors who are so inconsiderate that they light up your house with their lights. These prevent me from seeing the Ultimate Lights in the Sky. So please turn off your lights. I want to see the lights of summer instead.
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