Photo Shoot: Capturing the moment summer vacation begins on Cape Cod

Thanks to a mild winter, many schools wrapped up their last day of classes early on Flag Day this year. Cheers and tears as the young academics completed another year of education and lugged home a locker’s worth of papers and clothing not seen by parents since last fall.

Growing up as a child of two teachers, the school year also bookmarked our homelife. When the last bell rang on a hot June day, the entire family headed out into summer vacation. As townies who walked to school, we would line up to yell goodbyes to classmates heading out on an armada of yellow buses into the Canisteo, New York hill country. Many we would not see until September. Looking back, it is surprising what was taken for granted, two and a half months of vacation, basically all the days of summer. School started the Tuesday after Labor Day back then.

I imagine my desire to photograph the last day of school year after year is an attempt to capture that feeling. The tension builds in the final 30 minutes awaiting dismissal. The last act our teachers did every year was hand us our report cards, the final tally of a year’s hard work, not without some surprises, happy and sad. Then a final message over the PA system from the principal before heading home.

Trying to capture all this in a single photo each year is a challenge. I have no secret for being in the right place at the correct time. I look for a good composition down one of the bus lines and wait. The action happens fast. Then a final wave from the teachers and it's summer vacation. Teachers head back to their classrooms and the photojournalist heads to a hot car to send in photos ahead of a mid-day deadline, always wondering, “What would it be like to have the entire summer off?” But better to look back on all the summers off long ago and be reminded of the Dr. Seuss quote, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Photo Shoot: School's out for summer vacation on Cape Cod