Seasons in the Sun at Black Moshannon

It is a holiday weekend in the U.S., with Monday being the Labor Day Holiday. So there is lots going on everywhere. It was Saturday afternoon. My husband and I were home watching the big Penn State opener against Wisconsin, which was a real white knuckler. If you're a fan of defense, it was quite a show.

When the Nittany Lions pulled it out with an interception in the fourth quarter, we screamed and hollered like all of the other Nittany Nation faithful. And then we decided, since it was a nice, sunny afternoon, to go swimming!

We drove to Black Moshannon State Park, which is about a half-hour from where we live. I grabbed my camera and walked around, taking pictures. My husband took our chairs and set them up by the swimming area, so this was the scene when I got there, after some photo ops. The chair on the right is mine. The man standing by himself out in the middle of the water is my husband. 

Soon, I was in the water too, swimming. The water was a bit colder than the last time we were there, but not amazingly so. And then: the music started! There was a white truck set up near the restrooms and changing area, and a small white tent next to it. From the small white tent came the tunes! Loud! Music was suddenly blasting through the air!

Black Moshannon is usually pretty sedate. So it was sort of shocking and amusing, and I started to giggle as I was swimming. The sound of music echoed off the hills and trees; I caught a bit of reverb as it did. Sunburned people started clapping.

And then suddenly blasting through the speakers came the song Seasons in the Sun, by Terry Jacks. And we were sort of swimming and laughing, and singing along. We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun!

Then my husband said: "But wait, isn't this sort of a sad song? Isn't he DYING?"  And I replied, with a twinkle in my eye, "Oh, you never know. . . . Maybe he had a miraculous recovery, married the girl of his dreams, and they lived happily ever after!" And we had a good laugh together.

When we finished our swim, we got our chairs and sat up on the hill over the lake by a pavilion. That lovely boat that we saw the one time that takes people out on the lake for a (free) little tour was running again, and we were nearby around 6 p.m. when it took off for its next jaunt.

We looked at each other, thinking about going along, but we hadn't planned on anything like that - we had no warmer clothes, nothing to eat, and we did hope to get home before it turned dark. So - wistfully - we watched the ship take off, and agreed we'd do it some other day. Something to look forward to, I guess!

Here is the soundtrack song for this late afternoon swim: Terry Jacks, with Seasons in the Sun.