Thanks To Seasonal Businesses!

by Esther J. Perne

They make vacations possible, more enjoyable, more memorable, more fun, less housework-y. They provide the unseen magic behind the scenes and supply the visible welcome smiles on the front lines. They help put stars in the eyes of young campers and demonstrate a sense of caring for senior visitors. They are the many, the dozens of area businesses that are open only during the summer season and the many businesses open year-round that ramp up their work and their work forces during the popular, packed summer months.

They all deserve an incredible thanks.

Thanks for being open on holidays, weekends (what are those??), unless the business is a seasonal church, late nights and early mornings.

Thanks for being mini-information centers and Jacks-and-Jills of all answers, directions, local advice, weather predictions, still more directions to the thousands of vacationers and visitors that flock here.

Thanks for beautifying the region through the landscaping, gardening, mowing, flower boxes and dedicated shorefront improvement projects.

Thanks for managing and promoting recreation: golfing, fishing, sailing, marinas, trails, sports shops.

Thanks for the maintenance and monitoring of lake protection, boat inspections, milfoil removal, invasive plant paddles and numerous conservation education and appreciation activities.

Thanks for hauling produce to town for Farmers' Markets and setting up roadside stands and trustingly leaving eggs and corn and fresh-picked berries for sale at the bottoms of driveways.

Thanks for running grocery stores, gift shops, ice cream stands, seasonal restaurants and take-outs and food trucks.

Thanks for consulting about construction work and contracting and building and completing before the snow flies.

Thanks for the extra hours at municipal services to accommodate paperwork and make available services (such as the dump).

Thank you for continuing the heritage and traditions of fishing camps, youth camps, sports camps and recreation camps and rental camps.

Thank you for entertainment and the arts, for theater and crafts and music, for libraries and book stores and all areas of enrichment.

Thank you, employers and employees and all seasonal workers, for living a way of life that is not necessarily secure, does not pay well, that is long on absentee parenthood and that, we now know, might not even be openable or might be highly restricted when the next year's season rolls around.

Thanks to the children who are raised in this strange seasonal work cycle and seem to understand.

Thanks to the large seasonal businesses who in the aggregate employ hundreds of staff and thanks to the single entrepreneur open for business at the local lemonade stand.

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