Headed For A Fall
By Neal Wooten
There’s nothing quite like the scenery of the mountains on each side of the valley beginning to change colors as all the hardwoods go from green to yellows, oranges, and browns. That’s how we know in this area that we have survived yet another brutal Alabama summer and this is our reward; an all-too-short season of mild temps before we all start whining about the bitter cold.
Fall is the time of football and festivals, of Halloween and Thanksgiving, of digging out the sweatshirts and hoping they still fit after being stuck in our homes for too long. And most importantly, it’s the time to finally stop having to cut the grass, which grows in north Alabama faster than a rabbit on steroids.
We set our clocks back an hour, so it’s now daylight when we leave for work and gets dark right after lunch. But you have to make tradeoffs, and getting dark sooner is a tradeoff for your eyeglasses not instantly fogging up as you step out of the car and sweating like a redheaded stepchild.
We can fold up the windshield protector and throw it in the trunk and ride with the windows cracked a little instead of running the gas-guzzling air conditioner on full blast. We can turn off the central-air in our homes and finally enjoy lower power bills for a while.
The biggest problem I have during this time of year is letting go of my favorite sleep aid, my fan. The steady humming and the gentle breeze make me sleep like a baby, so it’s difficult to let that go. I fight it. For the last several nights, I’ve turned it on and drifted off to sleep, only to wake and wonder if I was on an artic expedition and just forgot.
When I was a kid, it was even more meaningful. It meant no more picking okra, corn, tomatoes, watermelons, or whatever my dad had a desire to plant that year. It means fewer snakes and fewer bees, and soon they’ll be gone for a little while. I will miss the snakes, but not the bees. Gee, I hope the Murder Hornets are going to be okay.
It used to be the time for new TV shows and to wonder if your favorite show was returning for another season. I haven’t watched regular TV in so long, I don’t even know if it still works that way. Now you can start streaming a series on Netflix or Amazon Prime whenever you like.
Enjoy it while you can. In another month, we’ll be wearing hoodies, gloves, and insulated COVID masks, wondering when the heck summer is going to get here.