news-record.com

Let me set the scene for you.

It’s about a month into Sally and Wally’s summer vacation.
They have slowly become acclimated to the lack of schedule a relaxing summer entails with no school. They wake up later than usual, enjoy afternoons at the pool and evenings playing video games with their friends.

Amid their relaxed social schedule, they decide to watch a little TV. They turn on their favorite show and become engrossed in the story line. They numbly watch a couple of commercials as they wait for their show to return “after these messages.”

One commercial however, completely ruins the vacation mood.

It’s a back-to-school sale — in July of all things. Suddenly summertime seems to halt, and rather than thinking they have six more weeks of summer vacation to enjoy, they begin to lament that they only have six more weeks until school starts.

It’s one of those glass-half- empty-half-full kind of things.

I know that stores have done this for many years. Stores sneak in their fall and back-to-school merchandise while everyone is out having a good time at the pool or out of town on a vacation.

The instant the commercials start or the fliers begin to arrive, reality hits that all of this relaxation is going to end sooner than later.

It can be 96 degrees outside, and stores start advertising long sleeves, boots and coats — all the cold-weather necessities for the stylish young girl or boy. We can be suiting up to go swimming when we glance over and see a flier encouraging us to shop now for pens, pencils and notebook paper.

To add insult to injury, just try to find a good selection of bathing suits or shorts in July. Trying to locate some seasonal boating gear?

Good luck, as many stores have already sold out of the special-order seasonal merchandise long before the season ends. I guess they have to make room for all that back-to-school and fall merchandise somehow.

Back-to-school gear is not the only merchandise that seems to arrive prematurely.

We'll be grabbing that last bag of charcoal at a local discount store in August and pass by the beginnings of Christmas merchandise being shelved. Do we really want to look at Christmas trees and red and green trimmings when we haven’t even celebrated Labor Day?

Seriously, the last thing on my mind in August is buying those long strands of blinking lights that can adorn my Christmas tree four months later.

I am a planner, but I don’t plan that far in advance.

Before we hit New Year’s Day, we see Valentine’s candy and cards arriving by the truckload. I should be feeling the love, but instead, by the end of the Christmas holidays, I just want some reprieve from celebrating for a little while before we are inundated with yet another season to prepare for.

I guess once a holiday is over, the stores need something to fill the now-empty shelves that once held those seasonal gift packages of soaps and perfumes. It’s always out with the recently past season and in as quick as you can with whatever season comes next on the calendar, even if that season is still a couple of months away.

Easter stuff arrives before Valentine’s Day, and after that, the vicious cycle continued as we see kiddie pools and suntan lotion arrive once more on the shelves in the early stages of spring.

Perhaps the arrival of summer merchandise is partly to blame for “spring fever” that many folks suffer once the weather warms again from our short Southern winters.

I am all for a good sale and love buying fresh packs of paper and new ink pens, but somehow in all of this, I side with the poor kids who were tricked into thinking that summer vacation actually lasted from June to the end of August.

It just seems wrong somehow to interrupt Sally and Wally’s summer with reminders of just how quickly it’s going to end by flashing advertisements of excited kids holding their new 5-Point composition books in mid-July.

Linda Vestal is a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend living in Gibsonville. Contact her with comments or story ideas at lindavestal@triad.rr.com.