Labor Day,I always think of it as the last splash of summer. It is an opportunity to get together with friends and family,before the children return to school and more structured routines replace our summer frolicking. It will proceed the sound of the school bus as they make their stops, and pick up our freshly scrubbed young.

It is the last weekend before pools close and it seems that there is a sudden rebound reaction ,the need to have your last swim. The splash unlike any other, as it is the last of this season. This is another ritual for the most fortunate of us.

With all this in mind, we will create the opportunity for overindulgence, a cook out that has all the last tastes of summer. I can almost smell the grill, the very best hamburgers and of course the hot dogs. A few steaks and maybe some shrimp will be added to the mix.

The colors will be beautiful, and the challenge of this presentation is always my pleasure. There will be a bountiful display ,using the harvest of this season. Colorful tomatoes, green,red and yellow peppers as well as the squash,lettuce and other greens,as they spread their last hue.The almost too ripe melons will drip their sweetness,with the scattered pits that add color.

But this is only a taste of what this event means, Labor Day has taken on the meaning of the end of our summer, when with some ambivalence,we move forward again by returning to the routines that we both love and hate.

Learn more about this author, Olivia Bredbenner.
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