Boromir and the Portland Summer

When spring officially faded into summer on Thursday evening I was walking through the South Park Blocks listening to The Classic Crime song Vagabonds. It’s a song about loving a city and loving living in it.

“People can't get enough
Of living in the darkness and the rain
But when the sun comes out
The streets are filled with songs
And people playing it loud
So the whole world can sing along”

OK, I know that this song is about that other Northwest city, but it still applies. I LOVE Portland and the streets WERE filled with song as I left my friend’s apartment and walked the 10 blocks home in the twilight. Summer is here and the sun will soon come out and stay out for three long glorious months. We have been waiting. We are getting kinda stoked.

In Portland, we say, "If you don’t like the weather...maybe you should leave because this is how it is." Well, that’s what we say in late February when it’s rainy, cold and forever dark because we get like five hours of daylight. Notice I did not say sunlight. The light we get is filtered through heavy gray cloud blankets.

In late February we don’t tell those weather whiners about Portland’s spectacular summers because in late February, we only a few vague memories of the sun. We remember that once we frolicked in parks without dodging random hail showers. Those few precious memories we hoard.  We guard them and keep them close and use them to strengthen our belief that we deserve those three glorious summer months.

We negotiate with our unkind, selfish selves that will use those months for good, like cycling or kickball. We tell ourselves that only we, the ones who know the long months of weather misery, can wield all of that unbridled sunshine and temperature perfection.

We put in our time! Those months are ours and ours alone!

We get a little Boromir and the Ring about it.

OK, so in the dead of winter we’re a tad dramatic. After all, the five hours of daylight and miserable weather have forced us to retreat inside reading books, watching movies, and playing board games. Drama happens.

In October, however, when the memories and effects of long cloudless days filled with sunshine still linger on our minds and on our skin we say, “Yeah, the never ceasing rain and the darkness can be brutal at times but it’s all worth it for the summer. July, August and September are awesome.”

Today is the first full day of summer and we are on the cusp of greatness. We’ve already quadrupled booked everyday of every weekend. The joyful anticipation is building. July 5, you’re Portland’s unofficial first day of summer, we’re waiting for you. The weather’s been sort of weird this year, don’t let us down.