Monday, July 30, 2007

August and Everything After

One thing I will never get used to living in the tropics...the onset of fall/autumn/winter. Today was 93 degrees with humidity at about 90%, I came out of my local supermarket and passed the window of the Dollar store. The Manager was arranging scarecrows and colored leaves on the display board. In the rest of the country, August is the last of the dog days of summer, but here we are just at our hottest...it couldn't feel less like fall if it tried. ~sigh~

I'm a Jersey girl and frankly I miss the change of seasons..I miss shopping for boots and sweaters. I miss the smell of fallen leaves in piles and the cool crisp nights of October, my birth month.

When I was a kid, by mid August you just knew that the summer was almost over..we didn't go back to school until the week after labor day. Here they go back 2 weeks before Labor day and in some places even earlier. In August you held on to each day knowing that it would soon be cool..you'd be back at school, so we lingered a little longer at the pool..or the beach or the lake. We saw the scarecrows in the windows and we'd groan knowing we'd have to go to school, but there was an excitement to it too. New clothes, new school supplies. I loved getting a new notebook (blue canvas ring binder), it was a clean new palate just waiting for writings & Drawings in blue bic pen ink. The smell of new paper and books. I still love the smell of a new book...I always smell the inside when I buy one. Book covers, you could buy them at the 5&10 for about a dime each, or you took some of Mom's brown grocery bags and made the folds then slipped right on your school book. We'd get fined if our books weren't covered. I don't think kids get books anymore..my daughters school had a classroom set they used in class and they took home work sheets for homework or had work books. Kids MUST still get school books...mustn't they?

In any case..I am waxing nostalgic..it must have been the scarecrows today.

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7 comments:

puerileuwaite said...

What a coincidence. I knew a guy from Jersey who didn't cover his books, and they BROKE his kneecaps!

Now you have ME waxing nostalgic as well. And of all things, it's for the paste I used to eat. So I guess you could say that I'm "paste waxing".

leelee said...

LOL...I don't know what to say...ya just make me smile 8o)

Serena said...

I love the changing of the seasons, too -- but please, at their proper times. In another two weeks or so, even though it'll still be hot as hell, I won't be able to find a pair of shorts or a bathing suit in the stores. They're already putting out the coats and sweaters. And it won't be long before they'll be putting out the Halloween stuff and, by Halloween, the Christmas goods. Grrrr.

leelee said...

I know, I know SJ...it seems earlier all the time...END of August..ok....I can deal with that...but July????????? and of course it never really feels like Fall here...till January..lol...

Serena said...

Yeah, sometimes it seems like the marketing people won't be happy 'til everything's turned around bass ackwards.

BTW, I may want to get you to put me in touch with the Jersey uncles soon.:-) The NFHs have gotten another free pass. Grrrrrr!

Corn Dog said...

Well, out here we have had a chilly summer. My cousin just visiting and wore he coat the whole time. Summer comes and goes and it just like winter but the days are longer. I want to blame Al Gore somehow.

leelee said...

SJ...I have my "Uncle" on speed dial..just let me know... ;-)

COrn..Please lets not give poor AL more to be responsible for...he's taking enough "heat". Come to think of it..."chilly" summer sounds good to me right about now!