Glorious Fall

By: Angela Gillaspie © September 1998, 1999, 2000

Whether we are old, young, or somewhere in between, when autumn rolls around we breathe deeper and we get a little extra bounce in our step. In the South, we enjoy being able to leave our windows open allowing the cooler breeze to carry in the forlorn love calls of the crickets, locusts, and cicadas. The air is fragrant with burning leaves, roasting pumpkin seeds, baking apples, and freshly baled hay.

In my neck of the woods you'd find Granny, Momma, and Aunt Ruth busy canning and preserving the last of the okra, pears, corn, and green beans while the younguns built mountainous leaf piles and then dived head-first into them. Going to the pumpkin patch with Dad to pick out the best pumpkin was always a thrill for me because I knew that I would soon be squishing pumpkin guts through my fingers. I will never forget riding on the flat bed while Daddy and my uncles baled hay in the evenings; those hayrides across the meadow were more fun than a pocket full of night crawlers!

The smells coming from the kitchen are absolutely heavenly during the fall. The sweet and spicy smell of pumpkin pies and apple pies lured many a guest to our house during the fall. Several neighbors just "happened" to stop by when Momma put her pies on the cooling rack next to the opened window. She would usually oblige our visitors with a homemade biscuit or two with fresh apple butter on the side. If we were out of biscuits, Momma would definitely have some peanut butter fudge to offer.

"Those pies are for supper," she'd tell our visitors with a smile when they looked expectantly at the pies. Sometimes, those same neighbors also just "happened" to show up right at suppertime to return the hose pipe or swing blade they borrowed from Daddy last month.

Fall festivals are a fun part of everyone's childhood. Whether the school or the church sponsors these events, you can bet a pound of lard that you will have a big time. You can enjoy the cornfield maze, cake walk, the kiddie duck pond and fishing booth, bobbing for apples, eating funnel cakes and caramel apples, face painting, the dunking booth, and a pumpkin decorating contest.

For the older folks, the main event going on in the fall is football. Not just any football, mind you, but SEC football. All over the South, people pack up their RVs, station wagons, pick-ups, coolers, and suitcases and head for the playing field. Oh man, wearing your color-coordinated face paint and sweatshirt while tailgating with fried chicken, potato salad, and cold beer (and iced tea for the drivers) is why God made football.

What does fall mean to you? Snuggling up with your sweetheart at the game? Listening to the scratchy sounds the leaves make as they blow down the street? Seeing the spectacular displays of foliage and those beautiful orange-red sunsets? Using twenty rolls of toilet paper to make a friend's yard look like a winter wonderland? Making popcorn balls with Granny? Sitting around the bonfire? Or is it the delicious thought that this year your team might whup Bama? Fall memories are all relative, that's for sure.