First Day, Last Day

First Day, Last Day

9-6-13

By Jack Coll

     I know the calendar doesn’t agree with me, but in my world the first day of school has always been the last day of summer.  There’s something happy and something sad about that first day of school and I’m sure anyone within my age range will agree with that statement.  This past week, on the first day of school for many, I ran an errand to Bryn Mawr, and driving back to the shop I’m cruising behind a school bus, flashing his lights and making his stops, and I’m thinking, “Ah, first day of school, I hate it, last day of summer.”

I was listening to a country station on the FM, and right on cue, no lie, my favorite Kenny Chesney song comes on the radio called “Anything But Mine,” a song that deals with the last day of summer.  As the song goes, it’s about a boy and girl, walking the boardwalk, referred to as “that miracle mile.”  Anyone who ever walked that miracle mile at sunset has an instant connection with the song as Kenny paints a picture of walking beneath the neon lights, listening to the screams of the kids on the roller coasters, and of course watching the seashore sky catch fire as the sun sets. At one point in the song Kenny sings to Mary, “Ah, but Mary, there’s a summer drawing to an end tonight,” I wonder how many of millions of people have had that feeling on that final night.

See if you agree with me, or connect to the song, perhaps if you know it you can just sing it, Goodbye Summer, see you in 2014.

“Anything But Mine”

By Kenny Chesney

Walking along beneath the lights of that miracle mile

Me and Mary making our way into the night

You can hear the cries from the carnival rides,

The pinball bells, and the skee-ball slides

Watching the summer sun fall out of sight

There’s a warm wind coming in from off the ocean

Making its way past the hotel walls to fill the street

Mary is holding both of her shoes in her hand

Said she likes to feel the sand beneath her feet.

And in the morning I’m leaving, making my way back to Cleveland

So tonight I hope that I will do just fine

And I don’t see how you could ever be

Anything but mine

There’s a local band playing at the seaside pavilion

And I’ve got just enough cash to get us in

And as we are dancing, Mary’s wrapping her arms around me

And I can feel the sting of summer on my skin

In the midst of the music I tell her I love her

And we both laugh, cause we know it isn’t true

Ah, but Mary, there’s a summer drawing to an end tonight

And there’s so much I want to do to you.

But in the morning I’m leaving, making my way back to Cleveland

So tonight I hope that I will do just fine

And I don’t see how you could ever be

Anything but mine.

In the words of Bruce Springsteen

“Hey Little hero’s, summer ain’t so sweet around here anymore”

(The actual lyric goes) “Hey little hero’s, summer’s long but I guess it ain’t very sweet around here anymore.”

 Can you tell me what song that line is from?

Happy winter