Summer Love-In The Inland Northwest Love Affair With Summer Is Ready To Bloom

Brace yourself for three months of gooey public displays of affection. Because the Inland Northwest has never been shy about its steamy love affair with summer.

Now, of course, the season that unofficially starts today is a big deal everywhere in America - especially in places that have four-seasons climates. But the case can be made that few regions are more into the spirit of June, July and August than ours.

This is an area populated with people constantly yearning to be dressed in T-shirts, baseball caps, shorts and flip-flops. Around here, that’s the uniform of success. It shows that you’re living the good life.

You know it’s true. Summer is the Inland Northwest’s emotional center. People here don’t just celebrate it. They grab it by the hand, yank it out of the chair and say “C’mon, let’s dance.”

And with all due respect to winter, spring and fall, it’s the season when this region is most like itself. It’s when the area’s essential personality comes through. Why is that, you might ask. Well, consider:

1. Historical basis for a well-defined recreation ethic.

Mining, logging and farming are hard work. So when people around here found time to play, they really wanted to make it count. Long before “Go for the gusto” was a beer slogan, it was a midyear way of life here.

2. Relatively affordable lake shore property.

Years ago, you didn’t have to be fabulously wealthy to own a sliver of a waterfront. “Going to the lake” was born.

3. Water sports.

The Inland Northwest has lots of sunshine and an impressive roster of gorgeous lakes. Any questions?

4. Tolerable temperatures.

Unlike many parts of this country, it doesn’t really get oppressively hot all that often here. And when it does, you know it won’t last. So summers can be enjoyed, not just endured.

5. Pressure to conform.

Spend year after year hearing people pine for 85 degrees and you start to consider that to be normal behavior.

6. More mountains and fewer mosquitoes than Minnesota.

Some other places that have every bit as much right to long for summer aren’t as blessed as this area.

7. Spokane TV weathercasters who grew up in Alaska.

It will never be hot enough to suit some people.

8. Deeply ingrained collective belief that this is a great place to live and the need to base that on some tangible evidence.

Exhibit A: outdoor recreation.

9. Generations of Inland Northwesterners have handed down the idea that camping is fun.

Cruel hoax or heartwarming heritage? You make the call.

10. Spokane residents’ inner conflict about being urban dwellers.

A fair number of people hereabouts don’t want to admit that they live in a city. Their psyches are more in tune with some country song they’ve been humming since shortly after Christmas. So, when they can, they head for the woods.

11. Outdoor cooking.

This area is home to a lot of people who are descendants of Germans and Scandinavians. And some of the stuff they like to grill can only be prepared outdoors or people will pass out.

12. Ours is better than Seattle’s.

The list of things about which that can be said might not be especially long. But it definitely includes “Sun-baked summers.”

13. All these people who have moved here from Montana.

When you’ve known REAL winters, you don’t take summer for granted.

14. We’re comfortable with our near-nakedness.

For an area typically described as conservative and stolid, there sure are a lot of people who can’t wait to peel down to skimpy hit-the-beach attire.

15. The way people around here act when it’s cool and cloudy in July. This is just a guess. But maybe the divine forces in the universe that control the weather get tired of hearing whining and decide that, on the whole, it would just be easier all the way around to send us some sunburn days.

16. The pleasure of seeing visiting out-of-state friends and relatives eat their words.

“Hey, Uncle Roy, pass me the tanning butter. Remember when I moved out here and you said that it was a mistake because it rains all the time in the Northwest? Um, your shoulders are looking a little red.”

17. The culture.

For whatever reasons, workaholics aren’t widely revered around here. Instead, you earn respect by proving that you know how to kick back. And summer is kicking-back season.

18. The “Great Place to Raise Kids” side-effect.

Adults who pay attention to children and get involved in their lives often find that some of that summer vacation glow rubs off on them.

19. “It’s Too Nice to Stay Inside” Syndrome.

After you’ve heard that 40 billion times, it starts to sink in - especially when you factor in that not everyone around here owns an air conditioner.

20. Great conversation fodder.

Few stories are more entertaining than the summer anecdotes that begin “You won’t believe what I saw this idiot do on his boat today …”

21. In and around Spokane, people who hate summer tend to be viewed in much the same way suspected Communists were regarded back in the ‘50s.

And so, after a while, the only voices you hear sing the praises of soaking up some rays and looking at life through a pair of shades.

It’s as if the whole region is on the same heatwavelength. And from now until Labor Day, leisure rules.

Everybody into the pool.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Charles Waltmire