Summer Celebrations . In fact, nothing really seems to have happened on July 4, 1776. It's the longest day of the year, and although I'm indoors at my desk, I can see and smell and hear the joyous evidence of summertime.
Fragrances sail up from the garden.
My wife, Julie, and I have invited friends over for a platter of pasta and a bottle of locally-made wine tonight in our backyard. By the time you read this, the blue will be going out of the sky much earlier. And when we observe the winter solstice six months from now, it's likely to be 80 degrees colder on the Fahrenheit scale. That's why I find it odd that there's so little public acknowledgement of this amazing point in the year's calendar, especially in a place like Minnesota, where winter lingers for almost five months. A few people I know will host solstice parties tonight, but for the vast majority of Americans, midsummer holds no special significance.