Whaddaya mean it's over?

I was drifting along in a happy summer haze when I became aware of some disconcerting things. The figs were ripening -- which they never do until the end of August. About ten days ago, I was waiting for the bus to go grocery shopping. What were all these cars doing on the road? It was almost as bad as when the students are around. But they don’t get back until the end of August. Oh my! Did your summer go by as swiftly as mine?
This is a college town. Over 13000 people work directly for the University and numerous restaurants, bars and stores have a large number of student customers. So, though the weather may stay warm for a month or so longer, summer is officially over when the students come back. Those with apartments in town start drifting in one or two weeks before classes start but the day both anticipated and dreaded is Move-in Day, this year on August 22nd.

During one frenzied 12 hour period over 7000 students, most accompanied by several members of their family, converge on the two or three streets where the dorms are located. Special police are detailed to organize traffic; buses are detoured to avoid Grounds (as the Campus is called); smiling volunteers in bright orange T shirts serve 4 hour shifts to help unload cars and orient confused new students and their families; the local television station comes to interview people; the pep band plays.

This year’s Move-in Day seemed a little more subdued than I remember from other years, perhaps because of the hot muggy weather and the lunch time rain. But gradually and inevitably, what needed to be done got done and ,by Tuesday, the University was humming once more. That same day, the yellow school buses began transporting the City children to their schools too. Swimming pools, tennis courts and parks were left to the happy few. Now the strange period begins – no longer summer, not quite fall.
My own life has become unsettled. I’m trying to enjoy my last days in Charlottesville, while realizing that there won’t be time to do all the things I planned. I’m also spending an increasing amount of time e-mailing my friends in France to arrange September activities and meetings. I need a brain for here and a brain for there; a brain to enjoy now and a brain to anticipate then. It’s an uncomfortable time but I’m holding the thought that, like the students, before I know it, I’ll be launched, with happy memories, into my new season.