Autumn
Oct 4th, 2005 by Accidental Thinker
A friend wrote to me yesterday about it being fall in his part of the country, which got me musing about my own perspective of the season. My impromptu reply stuck with me, so I’m “stealing” what I already wrote to refine and expand on here.
My whole life, I’ve always thought fall was the season that most fit my personality, if such things can be linked. It just feels like the season I “belong” in. That’s corny, I know. Especially since growing up in Florida, I never experienced an actual fall until I left for college. I mean not a REAL fall the way I always envisioned them, with foliage and apple orchards and such. But still, the idea of fall always appealed to me, and the reality turned out to be pretty much as I had imagined it. I’ll never forget the gorgeous New England autumns I spent in Boston on a picturesque campus, which only further solidified my belief that fall somehow fits my mood and general state of mind.
Maybe it’s just because I’m a fall birthday that makes it feel like “my” season, but I think it’s more than that. Probably some crazy romanticized notion about endings and beginnings and change all mixed in with cider and cinnamon and fireplaces and hot chocolate and warm colors. And the crisp temperatures that make your cheeks rosy so you can’t help but smile and be happy. Everything just seems fresher and cleaner and cozier after a muggy summer. And just a bit melancholy too, perhaps because of shortening days and earlier dusk, and trees shedding their leaves, and people beginning to spend more time indoors as the temperature drops; more of a family time, and a time for deeper conversations with friends and loved ones. The thought of fall, or at least the idealized version of fall that exists in my head, always makes me feel invigorated and introspective at the same time.
Now here is the really crazy part, and this is how I know it’s all just romance and idealism—I hate the cold weather. I’m a thin-blooded Florida girl through and through. I mean the kind of freakishly thin-blooded girl who runs a space heater in my office in the dead of summer (that A/C gets cold!), never watches TV or reads a book on the couch without curling under a blanket, pleads constantly with my husband to turn off the ceiling fans in the house, and has been known to (gasp!) turn off the A/C in the car.
So give me spring and summer over winter any day, with enough autumn thrown in to satisfy my romantic vision. I’ll bundle up, I promise. That’s part of the fun. And for the record, those same brisk autumn temperatures in Florida (which don’t happen until winter here) are just COLD, when they don’t come with all the usual fall trappings. It’s not
at all the same.
Oh my, I can’t imagine turning the A/C OFF. It’s freaking HOT out there! Get some blood flowing in those little veins, girl! LOL
What a lovely post.Fall and spring are my favorite seasons, because I like mild weather. I tend to be cold too. Summer tends to be too hot and winter tends to be too cold. But fall and spring are JUST right.
Yes, yes, yes. We’re in the same page with the fall – the colors, clear
blue skies, brisk temperature, geese migrating, dogs and horses getting
playful in the brisk air, apples – oh, and birthdays. :)No way would the A/C be turned off in triple digit temperatures, though. I think we’d get you electric socks or something.
I too like fall, were it not followed by that old bugger Winter 😉
Indeed. The Lumpy repeats everything said above. I live in NY so we get
the spectacular fall and I love the cooler temperatures. Heck were used
to weather that can get down to -30 at times and ice storms that reak
havoc on the area. Still I have this image of you all bundled up in
winter apparel to go out and look at leaves while the rest of us are
still wearing T-shirts.The Lumpy
Mike, to be fair, in triple digits I would just point the A/C vents away from me, not turn it off altogether. :)Lumpy,
but aren’t you supposed to bundle up to look at leaves? Come on, at
least a heavy sweater? Really, t-shirts? You’ve just wrecked my image
of fall!! 🙂