September memories

Ah September, where did you go.  I just checked my last post and it was August 30.  That means more than a month has passed and I have not been motivated to write anything.  That, in a way, is funny,  because September is such a special month for me.  So many good things have happened to me in September.  I fell in love in September 1966 and got married the following year in September 1967. 
The hot summer heat of the Mid South usually ended in September when I was growing up in Tishomingo County.  School started back and I can remember waiting for the school bus, wearing a short sleeved summer dress, and thinking I was going to freeze to death.  Now it's not unusual for it to be ninety degrees the middle of September, but back then the seasons definitely were different. 
I remember the persimmon tree in the pasture started to shed it's quinine tasting bounty.  The ground would literally be covered with the bitter tasting orange fruit.
There would be just a hint of color coming in the trees and the nights were cool enough you would need a quilt to sleep under.  The grass in the cow pasture lost it's green hue and became a dull brown.  If you dipped your feet in the little brook that ran down through our property it would give you a tiny shiver. And somehow you could feel inside your self that you had grown a little older.  When you are sixteen or seventeen that is a good feeling, not like now.  You were anxious to get on with life and the fact you were getting there generally made you happy.  How different today.  Today when September comes and the seasons change you still get the sense of growing older, but today that feeling so often tends to depress, not uplift.
But I have made my mind up that I will not be down hearted this year.  I will be happy for the cooler weather.  I will make pumpkin cake and pumpkin pie and enjoy the rich warm hues of Fall.  I will pick the last bit of produce from my postage stamp garden, gather the herbs growing on my patio and dry them.  I will make chicken and dressing from my home grown sage and savor the rich taste of fall.  I will bite into a juicy fall apple and let the sweet nectar run down my chin.
As Simon and Garfunkel sang, 'September I'll remember, a love once new has now grown old'.
One September long ago I had a love that was new.  It has now grown old, but not cold.  It is richer and warmer than it was over four decades ago.  And when I count my blessings, that one will be very close to the top of the list.