Summer 2009 gets a cool start

Rory Martin, 8, (left) and Evan Wilson, 6, manned their lemonade stand for the first unofficial day of the summer season on Monday. Despite cool, breezy conditions, residents around DeKalb celebrated the unofficial summer kickoff. (Dana Herra – dherra@daily-chronicle.com)

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DeKALB – The temperature was far from sweltering Monday, but Rory Martin and his cousin Evan Wilson still managed to do a brisk late-morning trade at their North First Street lemonade stand in DeKalb.

The boys poured cups of pink lemonade for a surprisingly regular stream of people walking past the stand as they left the city’s annual Memorial Day ceremony at Ellwood House. It’s the first day this year they brought out the stand, Rory, 8, said.

“We just do it when we feel like it,” he said.

Evan, 6, said the pair is hoping to save enough money to buy a Nintendo Wii by the time summer is done.

Summer, by unofficial standards, started Monday with the Memorial Day holiday. Though the day was characterized by cloudy skies, a strong breeze and a temperature that couldn’t quite make it to 70 degrees, residents of DeKalb were determined to see the season start.

The air around the city was scented with burning charcoal and grilling meat as families gathered for Memorial Day barbecues. At Hopkins Park, most of the picnic tables were filled by families clad in sweatshirts and wrapped in blankets as they ate their hot dogs and watermelon.

“It was a long winter and it’s been a cold, rainy spring,” Bill Nelson said as he unpacked his family’s cooler at the park. “We’re ready for summer to get here. As long as it’s not raining, we’re good.”

As far as Nelson’s children are concerned, summer will start Saturday, when the public pool opens, he said. The weekend forecast calls for sunshine, but temperatures only in the mid-70s. That may keep some adults away from poolside, but not the kids, he said.

“They don’t care,” he said. “They’ve been waiting all year for this.”