The Chill of Fall Brings Reflections of Septembers Gone By

A chilly morning, closing windows as we got up. Only 57 degrees out there. Wow. Today’s high will be 81, but it sure feels like fall.  It never fails, that in all of my 57 years, I’ve always had that familiar rejuvenation of an oncoming September. Memories, gauzy, but still alive, of waiting outside to go to school in the early morning sun.

Mom packed my lunchbox, a whole room full of new friends awaited, I was fresh and so young.   Fast forward to my days at Northfield Mount Hermon School, getting dropped off in the fall, and waving goodbye to my parents as I headed into a dorm to meet my roommates and the others who lived in the big Victorian East Hall with me.  To this day I still correspond now and then with that first roommate, Tom George, who is on Facebook.

I am traveling on August 29, flying to Estonia and Lithuania, so by the time I am back it will be full-fledged September.  My granddaughter Sofie will be in a new school in a new home in Northfield; grandson Nate will be finishing up at his current school in Deerfield.  I will begin to plan in earnest for fall and the winter. Thinking about wood, thank God we have a two full sheds, and more out back.  The September feeling is unmistakeable, those bright shiny days, when it’s still hot, yet that night it will cool down so fast you’ll wish you brought a jacket.

Trips will begin to come in more frequently, it’s always that way,  the trip invitations come in the fall.  More chances to get away, but I only go on one a month, so there are more that I can share with other writers. It’s a good feeling, the fall, the cold is bringing opportunities.

On September 16 we will travel down to New Jersey where my father and my sister celebrate their birthdays on the same day, Sept 18. Dad will turn 90 years old.  The last time I saw him he said that he wished I lived down there, that I was a regular part of day to day life, and not a guy who only comes for short visits. I have wrestled with this dilemma my whole life, I have never been a Jersey guy. I was born there but my home is in Massachusetts.  After 57 years I have accepted that.