Saturday, May 11, 2024
In his 50 professional years, Tumbleweed has interviewed some true Texas characters and assembled the largest private collection of oral history in the United States. He writes a syndicated weekly newspaper column and teaches broadcasting at the university level.
Some people say autumn means the end of summer and all the fun, time to get serious and go back to the ordinary. Others look forward to fall, saying it’s colorful and energizing and it’s like starting everything all over again.
Personally, I’m with the previous group. I love spring and summer. I looked up the word autumn in the dictionary and its second meaning is “a period of maturity or insipient decline.” Another suggests, “the drying up season.” To me, fall is foreboding, dark and mysterious. But I try to be positive about it, knowing there’s no stopping its annual appearance.
It’s the active time of year when big things happen: the World Series, football, symphony concerts, county fairs, long walks, evenings around a fire pit, family gatherings, Halloween, Thanksgiving, the rush toward Christmas. School buses are everywhere taking kids to school and other events. There seems to be more traffic, more coming and going, people doing things and going places.
Nat King Cole’s “Autumn Leaves” along with Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s rendition of “Autumn In New York” are the top two songs about fall. They lighten up the season.
In autumn, the days get shorter. The nights get longer. The sky gets darker, and the sun is lower in the sky, creating shadows in new patterns. At full phase, the fall moon is a big round orange circle when it rises on the eastern horizon.
There is no doubt that trees are a colorful spectacle in the fall. It’s kind of nature’s final act of the year, like it’s been saving it up all year so it could unleash it at the proper time. Someone said autumn has more gold than any other season.
We look forward to cooler weather and get out Grandma’s quilt anticipating winter’s chill. Light and colorful summer clothing is replaced with darker, heavier wear. A warm breakfast takes the place of cold cereals.
Fall is a time of pumpkins, cinnamon, candy corn, pecans and red apples. It’s a time of serenity, nostalgia, reflection, harvest and planning. Birds begin their annual migration. Some go away, others come in. Some just stay.
The puffy white clouds of summer change into long, thin, wispy streaks. And under that sky, with all the activity of the season, there is a stillness, a silence, a reverence that makes us stop and look around and listen to the harmonious rhythm of the changing season.
The autumnal equinox occurs the first day of fall when the sun crosses the equator, and the day and night are of equal length as autumn moves out summer with a gentle nudge.
Happy fall, y’all.
