Wrinkly Bits
A Blog by Gail Cushman
Fall Is Falling
I love Fall, it might be my favorite season, except maybe Spring. Summer and Winter get votes, too, but they have some negatives, like too hot and too cold, as well. Autumn (isn’t that a cool word) has a little bit of everything. The days are long enough to offer long sunshiny periods of time, as well as cool, dare I say, cold nights. And stars! Now, stars are evident in the other seasons, but you must work on seeing them, which isn’t easy sometimes. In the Fall, however, stars come out before we go to bed. And, I want to say this…we live in Montana, no big cities to interrupt the light of the bright stars, the moon, and a planet or two. In the big city, the stars compete with bright city lights and often win. If you haven’t done so, about an hour after dark on a clear night, turn off all the lights in your house, find a chair and brewsky, go outside, and enjoy God’s nightly light show. It never fails to thrill me. Maybe you’ll recognize a constellation and recall stories of gods and goddesses our ancestors passed down for centuries. Spectacular. Any night. Every night. Before the onset of late-night TV.
Fall also has other benefits, like the color changes of the leaves of trees and shrubs, giving a color show in almost every part of the world. Red, orange, green, yellow, purple, gold, brown…you name it. My niece, Joann in Connecticut, has a Fall hobby, finding leaves that resemble other things. Her imagination runs wild, and it is always fun to see her post a picture of a leaf that looks like a squirrel or the Mona Lisa or my favorite, David. It’s a cool hobby that doesn’t cost anything and gives her old auntie a good sigh or chuckle most Fall days. Today’s masterpiece was a leaf that slightly resembled the face of a monkey. Or something else.
The deer and other wildlife start to come down from higher elevations, searching for left-over seeds from the flocks of birds that decorate our bird feeders all year round. They appear out of nowhere, giving Cody a thrill, after all they are intruders on his private part of the world. Deer and elk are some of the most beautiful of God’s critters. They are early risers, however, and often come and go before I open my eyes.
Nowadays when Fall is on the horizon, Halloween decorations come out, but my history in an Idaho agricultural valley, has me recalling the annual harvesting of fruit including the sight and smell of smoke from smudge pots helping to ward off the freezing temperatures that would lessen or kill the harvesting of apples and peaches, the livelihood of the valley. Smudge pots are in the rear-view mirror, but they once were part of the Emmett Valley’s history.
School starts in August or September, early Fall, and as soon as it starts, Fall kicks in, and the kids are back in school. As a child, I walked to school…it was just less than a mile, so we had no bus service. Most days I went home for lunch, so going to school meant a mile walk four times a day for this little girl and her brothers. We waded through the fallen leaves, swishing them with our feet. Sometimes, we were lucky, and Mom gave us each a quarter for lunch, and we could relish the homemade mac and cheese, bread and butter sandwiches, home ground applesauce, and a glass of raw milk that the lunch ladies gave us.
And sweaters! I almost forgot one of the best parts of Fall. I have sweaters of almost any style and color, and I can only wear them in the Fall. Too hot for Summer, not warm enough for Winter, and Spring means taking it off and putting it back on about every five minutes. So, sweaters belong in this blog, too.
So, here we are, leaping into Fall. The Cowboy is stretched out in his lounge chair, with a big smile on his face, almost evil, and says, “It’s Fall and it’s gonna snow this week. I just know it. It’s almost October so who wouldn’t love it?”
“Welcome, Fall,” I say. “You gave me a chance for some good memories!” Now, which sweater shall I wear today?
