--- title: As Labor Day Looms: Classic Photos of Late Summer on Cape Cod description: In early September 1946, LIFE magazine perfectly captured the unique, sweet, melancholy feel of summer vacation's end. canonical: https://time.com/3880724/labor-day-classic-photos-late-summer-cape-cod/ author: Liz Ronk article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-15T21:49:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:37.890Z og:title: As Labor Day Looms: Classic Photos of Late Summer on Cape Cod og:description: In early September 1946, LIFE magazine perfectly captured the unique, sweet, melancholy feel of summer vacation's end. og:url: https://time.com/3880724/labor-day-classic-photos-late-summer-cape-cod/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbf01c925177337f/69884c59cd68483a6709f7e2/140820-cape-cod-capa-06.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Cape Cod Vacation 1946 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: As Labor Day Looms: Classic Photos of Late Summer on Cape Cod twitter:description: In early September 1946, LIFE magazine perfectly captured the unique, sweet, melancholy feel of summer vacation's end. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbf01c925177337f/69884c59cd68483a6709f7e2/140820-cape-cod-capa-06.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Vacation's End: Classic Photos of Late-Summer Cape Cod by [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) ## Liz Ronk Aug 15, 2014 9:49 PM UTC  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946.Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) ## Liz Ronk Aug 15, 2014 9:49 PM UTC In early September 1946, LIFE magazine published a cover story that, in words and especially in pictures, perfectly captured the unique, sweet, melancholy feel of summer vacation’s end. That the article focused, as LIFE put it, on “the first postwar summer vacation” of the 1940s somehow added—if only in retrospect—a quiet intensity to the story. All these years later, the pictures and the story itself remind us of just how fleeting the peaceful, hot days and long, cool nights of late summer really are. As LIFE put it in that long-ago article: --- > “” --- Finally, note that most of the Cornell Capa photos in the gallery above never ran in LIFE. A dozen or so photos at the end of the gallery are those that appeared in the magazine in 1946.  Caption from LIFE. "Michael Foster, 4, and his friend Marcia Perry, 5, spend the summer among the sand dunes of Cape Cod, at Contuit." Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Digging clams, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Young boys outside a sandwich shop, Cape Cod, summer 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Reading comics, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer ice cream on the screened-in porch, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images   Caption from LIFE. Driven by the soft southwest wind, the four Fosters sail on Cotuit Bay in the family's knockabout, "The Sea Dog." Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Mike sight-sees around Cape on the back deck of the family convertible but falls asleep after first few minutes' ride Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Mike likes to get up before daybreak and bring in the milk. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Mike, who is fascinated by all the babies in the neighborhood, gawks at the little boy who lives in the cottage next door. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Mike and Karl while away long hours fishing in a fresh-water brook. When lucky, they catch a few small herring. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Given a good head start, Karl manages to beat both his parents in a swimming race in Cotuit Bay. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Mike beats Marcia Perry, his best girl, in a race down a lane. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. On the porch, with boys off playing, the Fosters get some time to themselves. Bill Foster was down weekends and for a two-week vacation. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Mike and Karl Foster run to the top of the hill each morning with Fluffy, their dog, to get the paper. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Quiet evenings in the cottage are spent around the fire, which is needed in chill Cape air. Karl sits on floor, reading about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn attending their own funeral. Mike has stopped painting, which he does well, long enough to listen in on his parents' conversation. Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3880724/labor-day-classic-photos-late-summer-cape-cod/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3880724/labor-day-classic-photos-late-summer-cape-cod/"},"headline":"Vacation's End: Classic Photos of Late-Summer Cape Cod","datePublished":"2014-08-15T21:49:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:03:37.890Z","description":"In early September 1946, LIFE magazine published a cover story that, in words and especially in pictures, perfectly captured the unique, sweet, melancholy feel of summer vacation's end.","url":"https://time.com/3880724/labor-day-classic-photos-late-summer-cape-cod/","keywords":["Children","photography","Summer","vacation","1946","Ben Cosgrove","Liz Ronk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbf01c925177337f/69884c59cd68483a6709f7e2/140820-cape-cod-capa-06.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Liz Ronk","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbf01c925177337f/69884c59cd68483a6709f7e2/140820-cape-cod-capa-06.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Cape Cod Vacation 1946","caption":"Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946.","creditText":"Cornell Capa—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/children/","name":"Children"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3880724/labor-day-classic-photos-late-summer-cape-cod/","name":"Vacation's End: Classic Photos of Late-Summer Cape Cod"}}]}] ```