July is a month when many kinds of nature’s bounty become available. A time when reunions are scheduled for family, school and college classes. A time for long-planned vacation. And of course, it’s time for those outdoor barbecues. Most of these activities stretch into August and even to the edge of September when there is a distinct change in the way summer heads toward autumn, schools are opening for all ages, putting a sudden end to those carefree days. By the time all the students have gotten new clothes, including sneakers and school bags, there is a great urgency to get notebooks and paper and pens and all the supplies that schools require.

With the “get ready for school” days behind me, I am especially glad to have the summer produce at farmer’s markets, in field and garden, ready for the picnic table or freezer or any use. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, crabapples and the bushes of elderberries are now ready. I used to put them all into jams or jellies. They aren’t bad, either, in pies, muffins, on cereal or in sauce for the homemade ice cream!

Most of all, I miss the big vegetable gardens, which provided us with a continuing supply of fresh-picked everything! Summer squash – yellow or green; cucumbers and lettuce and small onions for salads, augmented in late July by baskets full of tomatoes. String beans and pole beans and lima beans and finally the ears of golden sweet corn! Somewhere along the garden season we begin to dig a few hills of potatoes – an added treat. How could anyone go through life in the country without a garden?

Family reunions take quite a lot of planning and preparation, but they are worth the effort. They create a special kind of memory, and thanks to the ready availability, they also make good memories. Recently I was re-introduced to a young man of a branch of our family we don’t see often. I thought back to a reunion of a number years ago, and told him, “Last time I saw you, you were sleeping in a basket on my picnic table.” He didn’t quite believe me, but I do have a couple of snapshots to prove it!

School reunions are quite different. They grow out of early days of growing up years; study and stress, and days of developing pathways in life. About the 25th reunion of one of my classes, a couple of former classmates who lived far away sat at my table. We were discussing the establishment of a newsletter, which eventually became an exchange of letters among the three of us. It continued until one of them, Art Rosien, passed away last year. Danny Skandera, who lives in Georgia, and I still correspond a couple times a year. It has been many years since we have seen a classroom, but as we get older, it is nice to remember.

Soon July will be history and the August dog days, and last of the big summer picnics and barbecues will fill the final warm days. The lady of the house will make a big bowl of potato salad and stock up on hamburgers and hot dogs and buns, all the other picnic supplies find their way outdoors and the man of the house fires up the grill and takes over the cook’s job. A few more leisurely days and summer will be gone. Enjoy!

The resident birds are now bringing their families to introduce them to a place they can find a handout. Then, after a few days they tell junior he is on his own. Some couples set about raising a second family and other varieties will be leaving in a few weeks for their winter homes.

Thomas Aliva Edison was the author of the words that ended last week’s column.

Who said “I hold it, that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing and is as necessary in the political world as storm in the physical”?