Longer Days

It was always at this time of the year, late May, when the days grew longer, that the likelihood of having to do homework when there was still light outside began to increase slowly but surely. The afternoons were full of promise, 60 and 70 degree temperatures, so homework was rarely given a second thought. When dinner time came around we all retreated from the schoolyard and went our separate ways. Though the sun had other ideas. It would still be shining, as if to taunt us to linger a little longer and let our dinners wait. After dinner the call of the outdoors was just as strong and we might make up some reason to go outside for a moment or two. The homework would get done we would tell our parents, it just wouldn't get started until after 8:00 PM. By that time the sun would be down and the temptation to procrastinate would have abated, at least until the next day. Then we might be faced once again with another glorious late May day with all its inherent wonder and the pernicious ability to delay school age children from completing their homework by the usual time.