This period of time right before Labor Day is a chronological and meteorological enigma. According to the calendar, dog days have come and gone. Tell that to the weatherman! Dog days are supposed to be the hottest, most humid, most oppressive time of the summer. They started on July 3rd and ended on August 11th. Yet, the forecast for this week calls for temperatures to be over 100 degrees. That’s “sidewalk” egg-frying weather. That’s so hot mosquitos won’t even fly, and grasshoppers slow down to a crawl. It’s so hot you wish you could find your Daddy’s old bamboo straw seat cover he used in that ‘58 Dodge before y'all had air conditioning. When clothes dry on the line in about half an hour, and the pages in the church hymnal stick together even though the windows in the sanctuary are all raised high, then that’s when you know you are right in the middle of the slow, sizzling, sticky spell of dog days. People who never lived in the true South, don’t know anything about that. Earlier this summer, the weather got a little hot around the world and folks in London, New York, and Paris were jumping into fountains and duck ponds. I guess they thought 90 degrees meant the world was coming to an end. It was not pretty. Imagine if those poor souls had a cloud of gnats descend on them too! That could turn into trouble of biblical proportions. So, that’s a problem. Maybe this global warming thing is picking up steam, and we might need to make some weather adjustments to our calendar.
I think the Washington crowd is getting a little hot and bothered about it too. Once again, the House of Representatives has voted to change the way we tell the time of day. Now they’re saying we need to keep daylight savings time all year round. No more “spring forward and fall back”. The Senate couldn’t make up its mind about what to do, so they just went home for a little while. I think that’s a good plan, and I would suggest that all of them go home more and more often. I guess the hot weather is wearing everybody down. Sometimes the best thing to do when that happens is just to take a little trip.
If you want a change of scenery but don’t want to travel too far, Georgia is a good spot to be in. The mountains are cooler when the leaves start changing, and the coast is even closer with a good breeze always blowing. If you just need a day trip, there are over 20 festivals and special celebration observances during August and September in our area. The Brooklet Peanut Festival on September 19, 2026, offers free entertainment, plenty of free boiled peanuts, and a growing array of attractions within a short drive. From October 8th thru the 18th, the Georgia National State Fair in Perry will once again hold a massive display of sights and sounds for all ages at the fairgrounds and AgriCenter. From Helen down to Elijay, Jekyll Island, Savannah, Fort Valley and Gay, there are October festivals celebrating everything from shrimp to peaches, to buggies, to pecans, cotton, apples, wines and who knows what else. Come to think of it, maybe we ought to start another festival right here in Emanuel County. It’s always nice to have visitors come by especially if they have spending money, and I think we have enough spare space on the calendar to celebrate something besides just pine trees. Any ideas? How about Dog Days & Gnat Nights? Well, maybe we ought to wait ‘til the weather cools and we can think a little clearer. In the meantime, get yourself a funeral home fan and a rocking chair and take it easy.
