Is it fall...anywhere? It's mid-October and I have pulled out the pumpkins, planted the mums,purchased the required autumn scented candles, stocked the pantry with the necessities to make chicken and dumplings, and filled the candy dish (a couple of times) with candy corn....SO WHERE IS FALL??
Truly, this is what I miss most about my childhood. I grew up in northern West Virginia and as I recall, it had perfect four-season weather. When school started (always the Tuesday after Labor Day) the mornings would be slightly cool and the days would be bright and sunny. Up the hill from my house and on the walking route to Hamilton Junior High School, were two very large apple trees. In my memory(note the disclaimer) one was a green apple and the other a red delicious... we climbed those trees many a fall day and picked the biggest and best looking apples we could find. It was a challenge to see how high we could climb, find the largest most perfect apple, and still manage to avoid "old man Boil" as he was oh so fondly referred to. He didn't own the trees but you wouldn't know it by the way he acted.
October would usher in frosty mornings and beautifully colored leaves falling from the trees. One of my favorite fall art projects in grade school required the collecting of fallen leaves (that hadn't turned brown)and the rendering of crayon rubbings on newsprint paper. I never got tired of that art project and each year it would appear like a trusted friend. School memories come flooding back as I sit and remember...another was the annual fire prevention week. Smokey the Bear would arrive on the fire truck at our grade school and we would have a pep rally of sorts, cheering on the efforts of the local fire departments. During the week before this very important visit we would learn all about fire safety and the details of the annual poster contest would be laid out. The winning fire prevention poster would be announced at the rally and I remember vividly wanting to win that poster contest. While I had a lot of creative ideas I could never quite get them on paper like this one little girl. I don't remember her name, but she had the most artistic posters, and I believe she won that contest more than once.
During the month of October our classroom would fill with art projects. Bats would swing from the ceiling along with witches made from coat hangers and black pantyhose. Jack-o-lanterns with cellophane colored eyes and mouths would adorn the windows. Black Cats would line up the top of the bulletin boards with long curling tails dangling down the chalkboard. I loved all that stuff...it made school so much more enticing somehow and I know that it was in those classrooms that I picked up the decorating bug that to this day bites me at the start of every season.
As time progressed and I was in high school, fall became synonymous with high school football. Now I readily admit I was not popular in high school...wasn't a cheerleader...but I loved Parkersburg High School's Big Red Indians and was a loyal football fan. Our school was one of the largest in the state (my graduation class had 724 students)and was usually a contender in the statewide sports arena. Buddy James football was big and our team won the state championship during my senior year in high school...Exciting as that was my, memories once again are of the frosty cold fall nights at the stadium where the cheering section would huddle together to keep warm. The cheerleaders would be dressed in their wool pleated skirts and lettered sweaters...teeth chattering at times between cheers!! When Katelyn cheered in high school and we made the weekly trip to the football stadium to watch the games, I have to admit it took some getting used to sitting in oppressing heat, eating snow cones and wearing tank tops. It just seems like football should be played in cold weather...otherwise what is the use for stadium blankets????
So here I am in Florida for my 26th straight fall and I do what I can to urge the season into existence. I pull out the decorating stops. I light the candles that fill the house with the scent of a hundred pumpkin pies and I wait, sometimes in frustration(like this past week when the temperature was nearly 90 degrees), for that magic morning when I open the back door and the outside has caught up with the inside of my house and it feels like fall. Katelyn waits with anticipation for the morning she can leave for school with a new favorite sweater, not because her school is so cold it feels like a meat locker, but because the air has a chill to it and wearing the sweater just feels good!
Chelsea is up in Auburn, several hours north of us, and I keep assuring her that fall (her absolute favorite time of the year)is going to be spectacular up there. Her first year away from us and all of our "autumn traditions" leaves her feeling as if she is missing out on the season...but hold on I keep telling her, it's coming and you are gonna love it up there cause it will really feel like fall.
So fall...don't let me down...we're all ready and waiting.
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