Editor's Note

What I Didn't Do This Summer

by Brian K. Mahoney, August 24, 2008

Each year in late April and early May, as we plan the editorial lineup for our summer issues, I, too, eagerly start to plot out my cultural outings for the summer. It’s a fairly similar scenario year to year, and my unguardedly optimistic interior monologue goes something like this: Wow! It looks like another great summer of events in the Hudson Valley. There are so many things to do, so many cool things are happening. Concerts, theater, festivals, outdoor activities—I’ll do them all. I’ll write down the events in my date book so I won’t forget them like last year. I’m going to do everything this summer. I’m going to be the most cultured person in the region!

Looking back on my summer with my date book beside me, I’m not sure, specifically, where I went wrong. Some days I had conflicts with personal obligations, some days it was work. Other times it was the desire to fiddle in my garden, or fire up the barbeque and spend an uneventful evening at home with Lee Anne.

And then there was that week at beach in Rehoboth, Delaware.

Sometimes it was general inertia, the inability to break the surly bonds of home and get in the car and go. Sometimes it took all my strength just to ignore the projects around the house I was supposed to be tackling this summer. Often, my desire to spend as much time as possible outdoors, in preparation for the varsity tanning team tryouts, trumped all. Many an afternoon was spent lolling in the sunshine, either in a canoe or just on our back deck, feet soaking in our inflatable kiddie pool. Either way, it added up to a season that flew by.

Here’s a partial list of what I had hoped to attend this summer:

Stone Ridge Library Fair, June 14
Making it to the Stone Ridge Library’s mammoth book sale (there are other events attached to the fair—readings, music performances, and whatnot—but they’re not the point, as far as I’m concerned) was a bit of pipe dream ever since Lee Anne and I put a moratorium on bringing more books into our house. Unless, of course, we removed a corresponding number. As we are reluctant to part with even our oddest titles, like Say It in Swahili! or Gout: The Patrician Malady, we decided not to tempt ourselves. If you are looking to expand your library, however, the Spencertown Academy’s third annual Festival of Books is coming up this month, September 5 to 14. Readings by Russell Banks and such, and over 10,000 books for sale. Amy Lubinski’s preview appears on page 119.