Lyric discussion by Grube42 

Cover art for The End of the Summer lyrics by Dar Williams

My entire life my parents would rent a beach house on Fire Island. Some years for just a weekend others for a week, a month, even the whole summer. But no matter what the day would come where we would have pack up the whole house and move off the island and back home. Back to our lives; school, work, dreary old life. I always felt that this song should be played out on the ferry dock as we waited for the boat with all of our stuff. Every line seems to strike a cord of that day especially when she says "But today you closed the door and said 'We have to get a move on'"; which was something my Father said constantly. To me this song is about the love of getting the hell away from life, even if it's just for a few days.