The summer solstice has just sped past. We could count last Thursday as the year's longest if we choose, and we do, and it is certainly noticeable that traffic crawls through Five Corners and past the Edgartown Triangle. The pulse of the Island has speeded up and will be racing from now until well past Labor Day.

Another season has come alongside summer, the season of school vacation. School buses have started carrying tourists, not students. Now is the time for children to be free of the bonds of classes and crowd in as much time as possible on the beach, in the water, biking, boating, and sometimes doing nothing at all. Once in a while it's possible to learn almost as much taking a walk along a dusty road as you can learn in school.

So now that summer vacation is here and small folk are out all day trying to enjoy themselves as much as possible, the adult world needs to take a little extra care. Don't be in such a hurry that you fail to notice a group of skylarking youngsters running about next to the street. Slow down, prepare to brake. And meanwhile, we can all bask in the pleasures of the two seasons, summer and school vacation.