End of June

I've always enjoyed the waning days of June. As a youth this meant that school was out and the summer months lay in front of me with all their wonderful possibilities. It has also always been the time when Jersey Blueberries hit the market, and for my money there are no better. The ones from Michigan are good but there is a hint of tartness in the Jersey variety which I find more to my liking.

The end of June means the 4th of July is near, with its parade and fireworks. In Ridgewood this has always been a huge tradition and probably the one day of the year where beers are openly consumed in public. I'm mostly talking about the people who watch the parade near the Railroad Station and grab some beers to go at Smith Brothers. We even did this the one year I was in the parade on the Graduating Seniors float. It was a hot day and the parade was moving at a glacial pace, so David Rorty and myself hopped off the float and bought a couple of six packs to go. We were back on the float and in the parade again so fast that we were barely missed.

June's closing for a working man may not hold the same possibilities it once had when we were young and anticipating where we might go and what we might do over the summer. It does give us the same pause on the 4th of July and if we are smart we'll buy all the Jersey blueberries we can and eat them until we can eat no more, then freeze the rest. When we defrost them sometime later, long after the blueberry season in Jersey is over, we can maybe for a moment recollect how good they were fresh and how much we enjoy looking forward to them each year.