This just might be the saddest day of the year, and the melancholy only increased because a little before noon, my granddaughter headed north to start school. The dusky curtain is coming down on the long Labor Day weekend, and with it, our little slice of paradise along the shore of Amos Lake is calling it a season. We keep gently asking the proprietors of this venerable establishment to stay open a little longer, if only on the next few weekends when it's bound to be still warm and inviting, but the gentle answer is always the same: No. The season is long enough, we're told... and we commiserate, even if we always hope for a different answer. And maybe, because we know that Labor Day will always be the end, we savor, just a little more than usual, the last swim, the last hike around the ball field, the last trip to the sign-in house for ice cream, the last calls of the katydids, and the last slam of the SUV tailgates. How many days until the Memorial Day 2019 opening?