Signs of Fall

When I was growing up in Alexandria, Virginia, 1950-1962, we had 3 very distinct seasons:  Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.  Winter was from the middle of December to the middle of March; Spring was the middle of March through May; Summer was June to August, and Fall was September through the middle of December.  Granted there was some overlap depending upon the shifting weather conditions, but you could pretty much bank on these four seasons.

The school year went for Labor Day to Memorial Day and sometimes extended well into June depending upon how severe the winter was.  Winter was winter and we got plenty of snow that usually kept us out of school for about 5 days.

While Spring had some nice weather as it opened its doors to summer...  you could count on summer being hot and humid with a little rain of some sort.  Fall was the ideal time for me, since winter was always too cold and you had to wear too many clothes when venturing outside.

Fall was jeans and light sweatshirt weather, and one could put in a lot of work having fun and never sweat or get over-heated.  It was a perfect time for hot apple cider or hot chocolate although Christmas was a better time for the latter.

But it was the leaves turning colors that was the most spectacular thing of all to observe.  When the leaves were turning, we would pile into the family car and our dad would drive us up to the Appalachian Mountains, on Sundays, after church to look at the colors of all the turning leaves.  If we had spent a lot of time driving around, we would pick up something to eat or our dad would cook fried chicken in his cast iron frying pan.  It was the only one he would use to fry chicken.

So...  for me, Fall begins in September and the leaves turn in October, and you eat fried chicken and drink hot apple cider.  The temperature is brisk but not cold and there may be just a slight bit of wind.  For those of us who don't get cold quick it is T-shirt weather as well, but not shorts.

Somewhere along the way, the seasons of the years changed along with the school year, and I cannot remember when we had an old fashion fall...  as it seems to go from summer into winter...

I am sure that many blame this on climate change, but I am not so sure...  It's just that our weather patterns have changed which happens every thousands of years or so.

Whatever it is, for me, is not that important, as long as we will one day return to Fall...  the old Fall that I remember as a boy.