What is June to you? Baseball? Pool season? Pomp and circumstance of graduations giving way to sweet tea and weekends at the lake? In the northern hemisphere, it's the month with the most light. And for many families, it has one common denominator.
June means "school's out" for students and teachers, including Susan Heffern-Shelton of Little Rock, who has taught in the Little Rock School District for 21 years, 12 of them in pre-kindergarten at Fulbright Elementary.
"It's just a fresh start and a clean slate," she said. "Literally, we clean the classroom. We clean every single thing that they touch, every toy, so it's fresh and sparkling for the next class."
She also finds early June "a perfect time to think about all the things that went wrong ... and reflect on how you can do better next year."
She likes to envision who she'll have next fall, echoing Anne of Green Gables: "'Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet.' I can do things differently."
Her students' short attention spans, whether from age or covid distraction, have her planning to give her 4-year-olds a little less freedom and more direction next fall when they choose their morning learning centers. "They lose interest in 2 minutes," she said. She hopes to aim for more "structured chaos."
June also brings a break from "always being on hyper alert" on the playground. Her students are veterans of drills for tornadoes, fires and "bad guys." "They know exactly what to do," she said.
The Shelton household is also celebrating another spring ritual (which used to happen often in June but has scootched back into May): graduation. Her son, Daniel Charles Edward Shelton, graduated from Little Rock Central High School. Family and friends gathered at their home for a tropical-island themed graduation, a theme Daniel chose.
"I'm so proud of him for succeeding at Central," where his father, Dan Shelton, and an uncle were both class presidents. "We felt very grateful to Miss [Nancy] Rousseau and the security team that they kept them safe."
Heffern-Shelton sang the praises of her local Buy Nothing community, where people lent or gave many items used for the party -- "leis, coconut heads, pineapple-shaped bowls," and a borrowed margarita machine.
June is also the very beginning of camp season. Later in June, Heffern-Shelton will be teaching at a Little Rock Writing Project Young Writers' Camp for rising third- through fifth-graders, with morning workshops, recess, snacks and games.
"It's not remedial," she said. "It's really having fun while you're writing and reading. Finding voice, starting a story, working on your plot."
Until then, she said, "I'm really looking forward to breaking up with my alarm clock."
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Summer officially begins on the longest day of the year, June 21. Toltec Mounds State Park formerly hosted a Summer Solstice Celebration where visitors could watch the sun set directly over the middle of Mound B. Covid protocols still prohibit large events, but the website offers a "virtual celebration."
June is also pageant season. Ciara Callicott of Little Rock, crowned Miss Natural State last November, will be one of 40-some young women competing for the title of Miss Arkansas at Robinson Performance Hall, June 14-18.
Pageants run in the family. Her mother, M'Shay Callicott, was a contestant years ago. She studied performing arts at Oklahoma City University, worked as a professional dancer, and helps Ciara with her talent, a contemporary dance routine to Celine Dion's "Ashes." She's also coaching Ciara's little sister in a teen pageant.
Like Mom, Ciara got into pageants to pay for college. She is in the University of Alabama Honors College, majoring in political science and international studies. "I will graduate debt-free," she said.
Her platform, poverty awareness, comes from experience. "I grew up financially insecure. That experience, also living in Little Rock and seeing extreme economic disparity, inspired me to want to create change," she said.
During the school year, she collaborates with a coalitions of college students in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia to decrease hunger on campuses through legislation and initiatives like campus food pantries. As part of her year of service, she travels the state for community events.
"I promote political advocacy," she said. "In classrooms we talk about what it means to be an advocate." She builds on students' knowledge of popular causes "like polar bears or litter," she said.
She and a Miss West Virginia contestant worked together "to figure out a way to expand funding at our universities and get a bigger space for food pantries." This month, they will meet with university administrators "to develop plans of action, compile data and create presentations for legislators."
This is her second trip to the state pageant (she competed last year as Miss Scenic Byways). But Callicott is not one of the contestants who has aspired to be Miss America since girlhood.
"I would be honored to be even considered to be Miss Arkansas," she said. "I'm here to do that work, and then whatever happens after that happens. I'm just hoping to spread the message, to change the future a little bit."
Later in the summer, she'll take the LSAT and set her sights on law school.
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June is the namesake of Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage and fertility. It's not the month with the most births, but it's above the median (and while the rate is going down, Arkansas still has an unfortunate fertility distinction: one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the U.S.). June is also World Infertility Awareness Month.
Dr. Michael Clouatre (pronounced "clue art"), an OB/GYN doctor at Creekside Center for Women in Springdale, knows about both fertility and infertility. In 25 years of practice, he's delivered about 10,000 babies. In fact, as a med school resident at Louisiana State University, on weekends he wasn't on call, he drove 100 miles to moonlight delivering babies at his hometown hospital in West Monroe, La.
He loves his work -- part primary care, part specialist, part surgeon. "I've got patients still with me for the whole 25 years. We've cried together over losses and celebrated together over babies," he said. "I'm getting all these graduation notices from kids I've delivered."
He's also delivering babies made by some of those children he delivered.
He doesn't remember his first delivery, only that it was "uneventful" and less likely to stick in memory. "The actual delivery is very tense. There are so many things that can go wrong at the last second," he said, noting that he and the team are constantly watching monitors. "But when that baby comes out and you see that 200-pound, 6-foot dad crying his eyes out, it's the most rewarding career you could ever have."
After med school, he and his wife planned to move to Virginia. "Out of the blue, a recruiter called me saying, 'I hear you want to go to Arkansas.' I just laughed at the guy."
The surprised recruiter prepared to transfer him to the Virginia contact. Clouatre didn't want to be rude, though, so he let the guy give his pitch. Then he and his wife decided to drive up for an interview and fell in love with Northwest Arkansas. "It was meant to be," said the father of four.
He also helps infertile couples, and notes that infertility is defined as not being able to conceive after a year of trying. As his practice's website notes, infertility awareness can translate into people's being sensitive in discussions of, say, pining for grandchildren.
"It's a secret problem," he said. "A lot of times the family doesn't know a couple has been trying to get pregnant" and being disappointed each month.
Once couples seek help (and they should, he said), part of his work is to "make sure the couples aren't finger-pointing -- 'It's his fault, it's her fault.' It's nobody's fault." His job is diagnosing: "Why aren't you getting pregnant?"
"I tell people the greatest reward in my job is to try to help a couple get pregnant. I know it's in God's hands," he continued. "God put us there to help."
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Of course, June holds Father's Day, on June 19 this year. Arkansans might want to take Dad to a cookout, concert and cornhole tournament at Harley-Davidson of Fort Smith, or mosey to the annual car show and swap meet at the Museum of Automobiles in Morrilton, June 15-19, or catch the Northwest Arkansas Naturals hosting the Travelers at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale.
It's also LGBTQ+ Pride Month, with the state's largest celebration, Northwest Arkansas' parade and festival, returning after two years of cancellation by covid.
Nationally, it's the month to take advantage of that increased daylight, to celebrate zoos and aquariums, camping, flag football, country cooking, iced tea, papayas, soul food, roses, pollinators, the great outdoors and homeowners.
It's also awareness month for accordions, men's health, headaches and migraines. Spin the Louis Jordan records to mark African American Music Month. And say thanks to nurse assistants, right-of-way professionals and waste and recycling workers.
In this season certain shiny scarab beetles show up, chomping plant leaves down to lace and creepily clinging to window screens of an evening. June bug grubs are pests when it comes to well maintained lawns, but they are also an ecosystem-supporting food source for various mammals and birds (as well as some people, according to an article at The Conversation that calls them "the croutons of the sky").
Heffern-Shelton also has ideas about making the most of the time: patronizing libraries, exploring creeks, hiking and generally enjoying the increased time with your children, whatever their age.
Former Arkansan Laura Lynn Brown teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and writes sporadically at Notes From an Urban Cabin.