A Love Letter and Obituary to DC Summers
Here’s what you told us.
I’ve been feeling a lot of climate nihilism lately.
It’s hard not to, given everything we know, isn’t it? You don’t need me to recap it here and I’m not going to because that’s not what this is about.
I’m lucky, really. Really lucky. I get to do work that on a few beautiful and finite days feels like it’s making a difference. I’m of a social status that means I’ll probably avoid the worst of what’s to come. I live above sea level.
And yet I know: all it will take is a day in late October when it’s suddenly, impossibly, 92 degrees again for me to think that it’s time to stop rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and sit down in one of them. Rest my legs for a while, maybe rethink how many kids I want. The facade of climate change memes and how much I still want Rachel Weisz to hit me with a hammer quickly falls away to reveal straight-up despair.
It’s in these moments that it’s good to be reminded of a small sliver of what we’re fighting for. Not just the clearly massive stakes, but the little vignettes we all hold dear. You definitely reminded me, 730 readers.
I take a hammock into Rock Creek Park, around Beach Drive up by Military Road. Ideally with some snacks and a bottle or two of wine. There are spots up there that you can get totally lost in, and have the stream running by — it’s secluded, lovely, and really peaceful. A good place to take a book or the crossword. — Park View
Riding my bike through the city at night. The streets are clearer and the warm summer air feels so good.
— Logan Circle
Day: Bike riding around the eastern market neighborhood and going to the public pool during the day. Evening: Meeting a friend and then biking up to the beer store on 3rd & H street for a single can and then biking over to Hains Point for the sunset. — Barracks Row
I love the summer in DC, this time of bodies and brightness and music. It’s barbeques and beach days and tubing and hiking and travel if you can afford it and I guess Whiteclaw taking over the world, sure whatever, yes. It’s also finding love at a concert with fogged-up windows; finding peace skipping stones in Rock Creek Park; the feeling of bonding on porches with friends you know you can’t keep; the feeling of slipping on jeans over a swimsuit that didn’t fully dry because it’s time for some fucking ice cream.
My quintessential DC Summer activity is drinking frozen pain killers on the patio of Breadsoda on a Saturday. The AU students are gone for the summer, the frozen drinks are fresh, and I can drunkenly buy plants at Ace Hardware when I’m done. — Glover Park
I love heading to the public pool right after work. I first stop by the library to pick up a book, then grab a lounge chair in the shade. When the lifeguard blows the whistle for “adult swim,” there’s no sweeter time to gloat in the child-free depths as the sun drops to perfect evening golden hour. — Petworth
Roll out of bed hungover, grab a swimsuit, and head to Harry Thomas pool! After an afternoon in the sun, grab a cool tea from Big Bear on the way home.
— Mt Vernon Triangle
Sometimes I even love the terrible parts, those horrid and humid days that might drive people away. It helps that my hair looks great in humidity, but I’ll also never forget the days just spent just slowly walking down Georgia Avenue with the heat pulling everyone out onto their porches and stoops, blasting go-go from their windows and indulging in a neighbor’s company.
Stepping out of an air conditioned building or vehicle into the sweltering DC heat, where my glasses instantly fog up in the humidity. Ah, home. — Tenleytown
Drenching business casual clothes on a ten minute walk to Metro; smelling the sweet smell of cooking garbage and BO; getting to work and immediately retreating to a bathroom stall to lift my dress over my head; freezing my tits off in a male temperature-controlled office.
— Adams Morgan
As Ted Danson puts it, you can walk up to anyone and say “hot enuf for ‘ya?” and they’ll respond with a “tell me about it,” and what’s more human than that. We’re bonded in this heat — call us a swamp all you want, we’ll be over here in Banneker Pool shouting ‘Chuck Baby’ for the 100th time this month.
Picnics at Banneker Pool, Malcolm X Park, the Arboretum, and in my bed — Logan Circle
Participating in DC Arts Center’s 1460 Wallmountables exhibit. — Petworth
Picnics in Crispus Attucks Park — Bloomingdale
I love when the air gets heavier and heavier throughout the day to the point where it’s unbearable, and I look for that one gasp of wind that builds and builds and suddenly the sky is shattering open and I’ve put down whatever I’m doing to sit on the front steps with the rain splashing my toes and the thunder rattling the windows.
I love when the cicadas plug in their appliances and it feels like the whole world is vibrating and it’s all you can think about as you’re approaching that one person’s door to dial up to their apartment.
This is all to say, several weeks ago we asked you to tell us your favorite things to do in the summer here.
And there I was staring at a ceiling fan, wondering why we should even bother anymore (it was probably a Sunday), and your responses brought me back. Given where we’re going, it seems like we might reach a point where DC summers will never be the same again. If we can turn things around, it helps to remember these moments as reasons to keep going. And if we can’t, it seems all the more important to catalog ourselves in this time, when the loudest and sweetest and most bombastic season was this crucible that united us as a city.
Walking to the Mount Pleasant farmers market and sampling every single type of stone fruit from each vendor. Buying plums. Saying hi to my friend at the coffee stand and buying a cold brew from him. Going home and making That One NYT Plum Cake. Plum cake for dinner. Burning citronella candles on my porch as it gets dark, sitting out when the cicadas come, drinking a beer left over from a party we had. Waving hi to the neighbors. Waiting until my neighbor across the street fires up his truly bizarre and inspired playlist (think Du Hast and disco back to back) and turns on his garden hose to get in a sidewalk splash fight with his daughter. Participating in said splash fight because this man has a very long hose that stretches across the street. While hiding behind porch chairs, strategizing with man’s daughter to steal the hose. Losing this fight. Eventually calling it a night, drying self off, and falling asleep to the AC box humming. — Mount Pleasant
Renting a kayak along the Anacostia (from the Wharf or Navy Yard Boating in DC locations), then enjoying a cold local beer overlooking the water at Hank’s or Due South. Then meeting up with friends for a cookout at their row house in Shaw. — Downtown Silver Spring
The Building Museum’s Summer Block Party! I go every summer and love whatever they have going on in the Great Hall (plus ac and no bugs). — Bloomingdale
Fridays @ Freer|Sackler are really fun, they always have cool programs, live music, art making, talks, and really awesome food from local vendors. They’re a super fun thing to do with a group, on a date, even with family (just be careful with those cocktails) plus, they’re free (except for the food and drink, of course)! — Southwest
Playing “spot the grossest feet in sandals” on the metro.
— Tenleytown
Shows at Fort Reno! — Columbia Heights
Yelling at tourists to stand on the right on metro escalators // taking bets on which 8th graders on their school trips are going to get in trouble for missing curfew because they snuck into the opposite genders hotel block. — Anon
People watching at the Dupont Farmers Market or any of the neighborhood markets, bike picnics along one of the gorgeous trails (Capital Crescent, Mount Vernon), sitting at the patio at Don Juan’s or the rooftop at Red Derby — Mount Pleasant
Patio seating at almost any happy hour (esp. wundergarden), rooftop pool time, playing in a creek in the mountains — NoMa
Participating in DCAC’s 1460 Wallmountables exhibit. — Petworth
Post work picnic at Meridian Hill/ Malcom X Park.- U Street
Bring a hammock to Malcolm X park on a Sunday afternoon, string it up between some trees, bring a cute boo and a book and read. Eventually the drum circle will start up so depending where you are, you can listen along with the sound of the fountain and the cicadas. Definitely bring water and some snacks. — Columbia Heights
Get to the Georgia Avenue Country Club (aka the Banneker Pool) early to avoid the line; snatch chairs and stash contraband wine in the shade, then spend the day watching amateur divers of all ages plummet into the deep end off the springboard. — Columbia Heights
We definitely didn’t even get close to the full range of summer stories. If you want, drop yours in the comments.
