Random Fall Thoughts

Now playing in our South Florida Playhouse

is a theatrical production repeated each year

to rave reviews: The Season

Act I, Scene 1:  Summer slowly, begrudgingly

exits stage left.... she has had her shining

moments, but the curtain is almost down

on her very long act.

Waiting impatiently in the wings, peeping

now and again through the curtain,

is Fall, the Coquette....

Act I, Scene 2: Under the first full moon,

Fall swirls onto center stage, 

her russet skirts around her legs,

the rustling wind causing the palms to sway

as if finally blowing away

the last remnants of heat and humidity.

Then, a smile on her burgundy-glossed lips,

she summons the cool breezes ...

and she teases.

From within the orchestra pit,

merchants respond with the opening tunes

of their seasonal songs: "Summer Wares

Now on Clearance" follows 

"Final Markdown!" and finally

"New for Fall!"

At intermission, sweaters and

long-sleeved polos and 

pumpkins and candy for Halloween

fill the aisles, competing

for smiles with hints of

Thanksgiving and Christmas.

In South Florida, the changing

season brings with it "the Season,"

when the annual migration of 

northerners and mid-westerners

and Canadians swells the year-'round

population, clogs the highways

and fills the restaurants, 

and we give thanks not only for

the turkey, but also for the

great money-bringing snowbird.

The Autumn of my childhood days

is a fond memory of burning leaves, 

and tall-stalk fields of gold and orange maize

we called Indian Corn.... a time of

running and abandon, free

from adult cares. 

We made our costumes for Halloween

then, no need for anything but

imagination and some simply-gathered

goods, some of Mom's make-up, and

perhaps a store-bought mask.  Our

tricks were innocent, our treat bags

were pillow cases that were over-filled

by evening's end.

Then the days became shorter, and slowed,

the countdown to my November

birthday endless.... And, somewhere in

between my Day and Turkey Day,

there would arrive the wondrous 

Sears and Roebuck

Christmas Catalog, a book for

making lists,

a book for dreamers.

It is Fall once again, 

and here I am....

dreaming.

© Candice W. Coghill, October, 2011 

Photographs taken in the Shenandoah Valley courtesy of Sandra Langdon-Wilson