Last Day of Summer Vacation

My daughter starts her senior year tomorrow. I keep reminding myself that this is it. The last day of summer vacation and with that summer floats away as trees are turning orange red already. Is it me or has this year drifted into the past like a raft on the rapids? Being sick this last weekend has made it feel like a lost week-end and now the senior is at Starbucks working on the Constitution scavenger hunt with her friend. 
The twilight starts earlier now. That helps putting younger children to bed. But my school year started later when I was a child. End of summer memories from those years include Munich Olympics and the Jews killed, Watergate hearings, Nixon resigning. Since TV consisted of just three channels and occasionally, PBS, our end of summer TV watching became interrupted. So mesmerized by the box, we watched the drama in Munich, John Dean testifying and Nixon droll his farewell. We seemed to have a more informed opinion of events because being mad our TV shows were pre-empted, we complained about the reason. We all wanted to like Ford. He seemed a decent guy and his children were cute to the junior high class.
One evening in late August, a big event in town, we never had before. Advertised faster by telephone than by posters, everyone wanted to go. The movie, American Graffiti, would play in the high school auditorium. The opportunity to see a current movie in our home town we were not going to miss. It could happen again, if enough of us came and made it worth the while. I think Student Council sponsored this. I could walk to see a movie by myself, well, without parents. I know all my friends strolled with me. I think we also thought we may have a chance to sit with a boy and maybe neck a little. I didn't. We enjoyed the movie that paved the way for Happy Days. 
The town never again saw a movie like that on the auditorium screen. Probably never made enough money, not enough interest from the small town. My friends and I would have supported more movies.
Soon though, we would be dating or driving ourselves with no need to walk to the high school to see a movie.
Eight o'clock, the sun is set, the sky grey blue. Quiet now, as mothers tuck their children to bed. I'll still probably end up in bed before my daughter. Senior mothers need their sleep.