By JOSH RESNEK
We are at that point in the summer of 2022 when there is just as much summer in front of us as there is behind us.
For New Englanders who live all winter and who wait for this exact moment, well, there is no end to the great mental rush this moment causes.
Right now, it feels as though summer will last forever, that there is nothing in front of us but warm days and nights, a carefree existence with summer wear, short sleeves, sneakers, and trips to the pool, the beach, the mountains, or just hang- ing out and enjoying the hell out of it.
A month from now, we will begin counting the days and weeks until the summer ends. We will begin lamenting the end of summer. This proves how momentary our delirium about summer lasting forever can tend to be.
Summer is here one moment. It is gone in another.
Right now, however, the summer is in its full blush.
Throughout the city, the summer blush is everywhere.
The Friday before the July 4 weekend revealed the city a bit of a ghost town.
A drive around Everett Friday afternoon was highlighted by very little traffic on Broadway and Main Street, with very few people crowding into the downtown or on the sidewalks, or even in the parks.
Gasoline stations along the Revere Beach Parkway, be- tween Chelsea and the Everett line, all the way to Santilli Circle, offered per gallon gasoline at slightly less than $5.00 a gallon.
At Richie’s Slush, lines of parents with their kids waited for cups of slush.
At the Everett Square Variety in Everett Square, customers lined up for Scratch tickets, cigarettes, candy bars, and cold drinks.
Several people scratched their tickets before tossing the losers into the trash or cashing in a winner.
Last week, the store man- ager reported the sale of a $1 million Scratch ticket!
The winning number was 19. It was a $10 ticket.
Keep this in mind the next time you’re scratching a ticket!
At Oliveiras diagonally across the street, a modest lunchtime crowd sat at tables under umbrellas eating charbroiled Brazilian food watching the traffic pass by.
Up the street, City Hall was closed on Friday making for a nice long weekend for city hall employees.
McKinnon’s was crowded with residents shopping for sausage and beef, chicken and pork, and everything that makes a July cookout what it should be.
At the pool across the street – well – the pool looked like summer on steroids.
Well, more than 100 kids bobbed their heads in the water as lifeguards looked on.
In all, throughout the city, it was a day to rejoice about the dead of summer – that moment when there is as much summer in front of us as behind us!