Cheerful Calendar

Thursday, September 25, 2008
12:08:56 AM EDT Feeling Sad Hearing Mozart Edit Entry Delete Entry
Cheerful Calendar

It's no use wondering what to do with your life.
You're doing it.

DB - The Vagabond
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Autumn is my favorite season of the year. It's the most interesting and most festive season.
It begins in late summer when the days are warm and the nights are cool. Most of the stormy season is over and most of the bugs have done their deeds. Crops are fecund and harvest is near. The leaves are lush and green, soon to be set on fire with yellows, reds and shades of amber by nature's miraculous power.
It's the season of celebrations: Ramadan, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Columbus Day. There were Italian kids in school who always got Columbus Day off, so naturally we had to make fun of them the next day, out of envy of course, just as we made fun of the Jewish kids when they got a day off.
Halloween was a big night for all of us kids back in the days when it was still safe for us to go out on our own. And we pulled tricks, tooth picks stuck into front door bells, hastily drawn crayon marks on windshields, etc. No spray painting the dog or other nasty things. Those things came along later with the razor blades in the apples. Halloween ain't what it used to be.
My father was a Veteran of the First World War and even though he had passed from the seen my mother always wanted him remembered on Veteran's Day.
Thanksgiving meant a visit with Aunt Emily and Uncle Stanley. Stanley was a painter, a successful one. They had a nice big apartment in New York City. Emily loved to cook, so Thanksgiving meant the whole family sitting around the big dinner table while Emily feasted us. Later they bought a farm house in upstate New York. So we all drove up there. Emily would have been heart broken if we didn't.
So now the leaves have turned to brown and fallen on the streets, sidewalks and back yards. We would run down the side walk, kicking the leaves as we went. The men would rake them up into piles and there would be bonfires.
The road side vegetable stands with their corn on the cob, pumpkins and other autumn harvests were about ready to close up.
The sky is getting dark earlier, The days are cool now,the nights chilly. The wood is in. The fireplaces are blazing. Animals and things have been moved to other quarters. It will soon be December 21 and the winter festivities will begin.