Summer feels a little different this year.

Maybe you’ve finally experienced the stomach flutter that goes along with riding a county fair ferris wheel again. Or, felt like pinching yourself when the resonating vibrations of music hit your ears at a live concert.

Perhaps you relished the return of a crowd of neighbors gathered for a chance to see booming fireworks, and smiled at the familiar faces throwing out candy at a Fourth of July parade.

We’ve experienced many of these memories summer after summer, but never stopped to appreciate how lucky we were to have them until now. One summer shutdown made these seasonal traditions seem distant and delicate.

The silver lining is now that we fully appreciate simple freedoms, we can see them in a different light. The traditions we’ve always known now have a bright and shiny new luster.

Maybe this new world has even opened up a different path. Are you doing something different this summer that you don’t think you would have tried if it wasn’t for the pandemic?

Whatever your story is, we’d like to hear it.

Tell us about the traditions you’ve returned to or just created this summer with the people you care about. Submit your pictures with a brief story about what you’ve been doing this summer. We plan to share them in an upcoming issue of Coast Weekend.

If you have pictures you’d like to share, please email them to ndavidson@dailyastorian.com. I look forward to seeing all of your memories and sharing them with the North Coast.