Thoughts on the season.

Fall has always been a magical time of year for me. Autumn memories--late September, October, November--are among my very favorites. I instantly think of pumpkin patches, scarecrows, corn husks, mums, straw bales, jack-o-lanterns, hay rack rides, wiener roasts, cool nights, changing leaves, birthdays, ahhhhh so many wonderful things!

Yesterday I was driving across town. It had rained earlier and now there was a low-lying fog covering everything. It was misty and cool out. And it felt like fall in the US. I wanted to get home as fast as I could, pull out a sweatshirt and start baking. :o) Smells like pumpkin bread, apple pie, hot cider also make me think of fall!

I am not sure how I fell in love with the season so much. I think it has to do with several things. After a long hot summer in the Midwest, the cooler days and nights of autumn feel absolutely delightful. Such a welcome change. My Mom loves to decorate in the fall. My Dad would always bring her a big bunch of dried corn stalks which he would rope together with some twine and then he would bring her a hay or straw bale from the barn. She would set up the bale and the corn by the front porch and put different kinds of pumpkins and squash and gourds all around it. Now she even has a sign that says "Happy Fall" and a wheelbarrow and a cute scarecrow! I always did the same thing. After years of living in Honduras we moved back to Joplin in September 2000. Only a few weeks later it was my birthday-- October 3-- and for a present Darrin came home with a big bundle of dried corn shocks, a pumpkin and some mums. I almost cried. I did the same thing the next four years. On my birthday I would decorate for the fall season. I loved it. It seems odd that now it is mid-September and nothing is changing. I read on my friends blogs that it is getting cooler, that Starbucks has brought out their seasonal pumpkin lattes :o), that people are taking their kids to the pumpkin patch and the apple orchards. And I remember, ahhh, fall is arriving.

I think the fact that in a 30 day time period my Mom, Dad, me, and both my sisters all celebrate birthdays probably made fall an especially festive time of year at our house. We often had wiener roasts on a birthday or friends over for hay rack rides. All typical fall celebrations but extra special when it came with cake and presents and relatives and friends to help celebrate a birthday!

And the sheer beauty of the season. Oh my. The trees that turn the most brilliant orange and red and yellow. My first year back in the US, I would just stop and stare at the trees. I had forgotten how beautiful it was to watch them turn their flame-flushed colors. I took so many pictures so that I would never forget what it looked like. I think maybe I should go look for a few of them now!

And fall festivals, carnivals and parades always were so fun. When I was little, I loved to go for the candy! When I was older I was always in the parade and marching in the band. When we moved back to the US, we had three little ones, and they loved to go for the candy--just like I did. I love the cycles that life brings. Makes me smile to see my kids enjoy the same things I did!

So I don't know. I can't pick just one thing. I love the colors and the smells and the events and the decorations and the weather of autumn in the Midwest! Somehow that all blurs together to me. It makes up my collective memory of fall. I love it. I miss it. I look forward to feeling and seeing and tasting and experiencing it all again one day!!