After an especially cool start to May, which made sitting outside for a baseball game feel like your team had made it deep into October, Chicagoland spring will soon be in full force. It’s fitting that we’re about to jump from the 50s on Thursday to the 70s this weekend.
We can smell the lilacs, and the cool breeze off Lake Michigan is becoming a welcome respite rather than an unfriendly chill.
We’ve put away our winter coats, scarves, beanies and Bean Boots, and now we can bust out our lighter clothes, jaunting through the neighborhood in shorts and a T-shirt without feeling foolish.
The sun is shining, and the promise of another sublime Chicago summer sits before us, in all her hazy warmth.
This is the best time of year in our town.
Memorial Day is first and foremost a solemn holiday honoring Americans who died in military service. But part of what makes the long weekend meaningful is that it also marks the beginning of the season those sacrifices helped preserve: ordinary American life, lived freely and joyfully with family and friends.
Some people from these parts venture away for Memorial Day weekend, treating it as an extension of spring break.
But why leave now? When the weather here is as pleasant as anywhere else you could possibly be?
There’s no shame in heading for the airport, but there’s also something deeply satisfying about spending this particular weekend right here. It doesn’t hurt that staying local means saving on gas, which remains stubbornly expensive.
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True, Lake Michigan lacks salt water and crashing surf. But on a warm late May afternoon, standing along the lakefront as the skyline rises behind the water, Chicago can feel every bit as transportive as a coastal getaway.
Most importantly, this is the weekend Chicago comes out of hibernation for good. The patios fill, and backyard grills fire up across the suburbs. Neighborhood festivals begin to appear on street corners, and somebody inevitably wears shorts when it’s still 63 degrees and breezy. The city collectively decides winter is over whether the forecast agrees or not, though it appears we’ll have good fortune this year.
Chicagoans spend half the year enduring the climate together, which makes the first glorious weekends feel communal in a way warmer cities rarely experience.
In Miami, pleasant weather is background noise. In Chicago, good weather feels earned.
Chicago summers are famously short, and that’s part of what makes them precious. This is our opening day — the moment the city exhales, steps outside and remembers why so many people love living here. No boarding pass required.
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