The summer is drawing to a close, the night sky is gaining a minute each day, the temperatures are cooling after twilight and endless “back to school” commercials are filling the airways, giving parents simultaneous feelings of joy for a quiet house and dread over the amount of money they will have to be spent on new socks, shoes and collared shirts for uniforms.

Though as a person of adult age, summer no longer heralds a joyous break from the hard work of learning about reading and arithmetic, I am also spared the looming cloud of September’s early morning bus rides and finding a new seat in the cafeteria after the rearrangement of upper and underclassmen while settling into block schedules and stressing over not having the proper shoes to sit with the cool kids.Summer took on a different meaning for me this year: local seasonal snacks and unexpected entertainment.From June to August I enjoyed the simple pleasures that our very own Carbon County had to offer and witnessed aninflux of local groups coming together to breathe new life into the region with farmers markets, outside movie nights and live music festivals.Lehighton’s Downtown Initiative undertook the challenge of promoting and conducting a Saturday morning farmers market weekly from morning until noon where Foothill Farms sold fresh produce, the Blended Bakery brought sweetly creative confections and local Greenway Apiaries brought fresh honey to the underused downtown park. I especially made several trips to the park throughout the summer to enjoy the wine samples of Rebel Winery and the handmade soaps and bath balms for sale from The Essential Apothecary.The market has been taking place all summer long between First and Second Streets of the borough. But Lehighton wasn’t the only one getting in on the fair weather action.Lansford Alive hosted weekly nights of music in the park and involved community members in the hard work of reviving the coal miner memorials and hosted several food carts where I gorged on potato pancakes made from scratch by members of the St. Katharine’s Church during the rededication/ethnic food festival at Kennedy Park.Jim Thorpe began hosting a Third Thursday event in the warm months where we all had the chance to shop the shops that normally close by 5 p.m. in the historical district. I have been known to say, “What happens in Jim Thorpe ends by 10 p.m., ’cause it’s an old town.” But the monthly events kept the multiple-century old town open longer for the 9-5 work crowd, along with the free shows at the opera house on Thursdays providing great summer entertainment with a mix of music that folks wouldn’t normally be exposed to, including the Ryan Shupp Rubberband Band.It’s been such an inspiration to see a younger generation rolling up their sleeves and getting involved to breathe fresher life and ideas into this old coal county. As someone sandwiched in the middle of Generation X and the Millennials, I was worried that I would be sentenced to be a lifelong commuter or once again have to pack up my four-door vehicle with my gypsy bundle of clothes and incense and move on down the road. But this summer I became optimistic that Carbon County can in fact fulfill the needs of all ages. After watching the hard work of the Carbon Chamber and Economic Development Corporation, the Lehighton Downtown Initiative and several community groups, it seems there can be a spot for the 30-somethings after all, and in Carbon, I can enjoy a place to eat with the “cool kids” without worrying what kind of shoes I have on.