My Favorite Sights, Smells and Memories of Autumn

When I was a little girl, the fall season fascinated me. I loved the smell of cured tobacco that hung over the town of Madison as you headed up Murphy Street and intersected with Dahl Street. The tobacco auctions were taking place and the town was bustling with both buyers and sellers of the crop. It was "pay day" for so many farmers and their families in my county. You saw those folks who had worked so hard all summer long be able to see that hard work come to fruition.
You could also smell (more than usual) the pit cooked bar-be-que being cooked every single morning at a local iconic restaurant called "Fuzzy's Bar-be-que." It was named after T. H. "Fuzzy" Nelson, who was known all over for his famous recipe pit cooked bar-be-que.
I remember the smell of leaves everywhere. When we went out trick-or-treating on Halloween, we played in the leaf piles, ran through them, threw arm loads of them into the air and simply had an amazing time. It would have been the first time any of us kids "felt cold" since months before in the early spring. All that fun and bags of treats too? WOW! It didn't get any better than that!
After trick-or-treating was finished, we'd carry our 'haul' back home and sort through all the candy. My brother and I would trade out what we did and didn't like with each other. Then we'd pile up in front of the tv and watch "The Halloween Spooktacular!" Special programing of Dracula, Frankenstein and other scary shows came on for the one night a year. Before that, however, we always watched Charlie Brown and his adventures with "The Great Pumpkin." Each year, like Linus, I silently hoped that the Great Pumpkin WOULD show up at last and prove everyone wrong! (Especially that hateful Lucy! She was always just the meanest little thing!)
The "fall" of the year...when the year starts to wax and wane and come to a close...the year does kind of "fall" if you think about it. The days shorten, the time changes, we do things closer to home. We add a blanket to the bed. Our dinners start to come from pots and the things that sound good to eat mainly "warm" us. I love the first smells of wood burning stoves on the first chilly nights. I also love the smell of leaves burning later on in the fall, although that's a smell that I don't pick up on as much as I did as a child.
There are so many songs that come to mind that I sang when I was a little girl. They range from Thanksgiving songs to Halloween songs, to songs about the season of "Fall."
I remember hay bales, corn shocks, lots of colorful indian corn and all sorts of earthy colored decoration. We were allowed to start wearing our "winter shoes" which would have been dreadfully uncomfortable until you broke them in good. Clothes became layered because it's funny in the south...it can be quite cold at night, but still manage to get quite warm during the day until later on in the fall season. You couldn't get out the REAL winter clothes quite yet!
I loved a poem by poet Christina Rossetti. I learned it from a World Book Encyclopedia book of children's poetry. It was always haunting to me somehow and I loved it. It is called "Who Has Seen the Wind" and I'll post it here so that you might enjoy it too! When I was a small child at Humpty Dumpty Day Nursery, we learned a song version of this poem. The tune was equally haunting and beautiful and I remember it to this day.

Who has seen the wind?
by Christina Georgina Rossetti

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling
The wind is passing thro'

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by.

I have many memories of autumn that are just as warm and comforting as my snuggly new robe and my warm slippers.
I am thankful that this time of year brings thoughts of good things, good times and fond memories. Life was simpler then. It was so much less complicated. Kids "created" fun and we had a lot of it. A pile of leaves made for hours of squealing, screaming and laughter. (We didn't know we were getting tons of exercise in the process!) There was no video or "gaming" to it...just good, fresh, chilly fun.
I will leave you with good wishes for a wonderful, even magical autumn season. Kick some piles of leaves that you rake! Take good deep breaths of crisp fall air! Enjoy this beautiful season that gives us one last burst of beauty before the icy chill of winter takes its place.
Apple cakes, pots of soup, home baked breads, warm drinks....at last! It's here! Autumn is here!

|