First Words – Summer 2023

The songs of summer drifted in and out of my mind when I first read Roger Thomas’s piece about Gordon Lightfoot in this issue.

Ian and Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan sang the anthems of my time in the same way that the Tragically Hip’s “Ahead by a Century” brought together another generation.

My daughters Jessie and Jamie have just come back from a conference, where they went to a concert to see The Chicks, formerly The Dixie Chicks. As Jessie said, “It was so nostalgic… It reminded me of two-stepping to ‘Wide Open Spaces’ at the Country 105 dances in Campbellford when we were kids.”

I just laughed. My mind flashed back 25 years to summer Saturday nights, when I would sit in the parking lot of the Campbellford arena at midnight, waiting patiently for a bunch of tight-t-shirted, giggling girls to emerge and pile into the back of my car. On the way home, there would be more giggling and whispered gossip – who had danced with who, who had kissed who, who was hot and who was not.

The summer after university, Jamie rolled across Canada as a Bud Girl on the Budweiser Big Rig, stopping along the way at every country fair and festival that served up beer and good times. “Wide Open Spaces” played again and again. It was a summer to remember.

Every generation holds on to their own songs of summer – the songs that bring back memories of laughter, friendships and loves lost and found.

Whatever your summer memories are, it’s time to kick back, put on your favourite playlist and savour the moment.