Old Fashioned September

[3113]

Something about the month of September that always feels old fashioned to me. Does it feel that way to you? If so...why is that? By old fashioned, I mean, I start envisioning old phonograph records and vintage autos on winding roads, harvest scenes with faded barns....

How does September feel to you?

 

[litfan10]

Great question!

Actually, I get the opposite feeling as being a teacher as well as a writer this is the start of a new year. September is a fresh start with a new group of students and new lesson plans to keep things interesting/challenging for me.

 

[Athalia]

How does September feel to you?

For me, September and October are the bittersweet months. The leaves turning red and gold in a riot of colors, the dry crisp air, echoes of summer warmth, but under it all the realization that we'll be sliding into the bleakness of late autumn with cold winds, bare trees, and shorter days. It's like saying goodbye to to a lover, knowing you won't be seeing him again for months.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I get the feeling my birthday is two weeks away...

 

[sr71plt]

Might be connecting it to a much-used musical and literary theme of the "autumn of our years," which is written as the time we stop thinking we'll go on forever, invincible (a summer feeling--which itself is immortalized in song and literature as "endless summer"), and when we start thinking back and assessing and savoring what we've experienced.

 

[Naughty_Misty]

For me September is that awkward transitionary poeriod between seasons. The long, hot, dog days of summer are now behind us and the cool crisp fall mornings are right on the horizon.

It also a time when I begin weeding through the kids clothes and toys. This is the time when I start removing the toys that got broken over the summer, the summer clothes that I know will be too small for them next year get bagged up and donated, the long pants start getting added to the drawer and the flip flops hit the closest garbage can.

 

[Liar]

How does September feel to you?

Fun but hectic. Late August thru September is when the production cycle starts anew at work after two lazy summer months. I have my phone beeping every 5 minutes and a scedule crammed to the bursting point.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I don't like September. Here in SoCal, as 3 knows only too well, it's the month of hot winds off the desert, of brush fires and hundred degree temps for a week. Given a choice, I would probably spend September in Maine or Puget Sound. The feelings she gets in September I reserve for October. That's the month of tweed jackets, blooded gun dogs, fine double shotguns and bamboo fly rods. Brown trout spawn in the fall so the monsters that spend most of the year at the bottom of the lake come up incredibly small streams to breed. They feed at night on the tiniest of midges. October is for pheasant and quail, November for waterfowl and deer. I love autumn . . .

 

[squarejohn]

Here in southern Louisiana, September is the peak month of the hurricane season, so there is in the background, an apprehension of disaster. On the other hand, August is over and the temperature is beginning a welcome downward trend.

 

[kinkyfunmina]

I can relate to a kind of nostalgia sense that comes with September. I'm a perpetual student of sorts and even when I'm not in school, I feel the urge to learn, read, study, philosophize, etc. Plus I really love the season of autumn and September is often a seductive month...giving little glimpses of color, crispness, cool nights and chilly mornings where a hot cup of coffee and a warm sweater beckon. I always feel like autumn is the most passionate time of year. It makes me all tingly and excited when fall starts to descend upon us.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I get the feeling my birthday is two weeks away...

Oh, it's also the time that traffic goes from dense to unbearably dense from all of the teachers and students returning to school.

 

[sr71plt]

Oh, it's also the time that traffic goes from dense to unbearably dense from all of the teachers and students returning to school.

Right on. Try living three blocks from a major university campus.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm in the middle of sorting my 78rpm records after playing some of them on a wind-up gramophone for six hours at a local event. This time I'm using the height of 1960s electronics to play them, with scratch and wow filters. I can change the volume by turning a knob, instead of changing from a soft to a loud needle.

In September I'm off on holiday to Warwickshire, a county I know only as a place to visit factories. This time I'm going to see the sights. When I get back from there I'm off to the New Forest.

October? My second week-long visit to Paris in a year.

September means back-to-pre-school for my granddaughter and the school run. Why are school-run drivers so incompetent? The local vehicle crash rate increases sharply when the schools go back, peaking between 8 and 9am and 3 to 5pm.

Og

 

[amicus]

This song, Early Autumn, by Johnny Mercer, I first heard in the 50's performed by Johnny Mathis...it has always defined autumn for me...

When an early autumn walks the land and chills the breeze
and touches with her hand the summer trees,
perhaps you'll understand what memories I own.
There's a dance pavilion in the rain all shuttered down,
a winding country lane all russet brown,
a frosty window pane shows me a town grown lonely.
That spring of ours that started so April-hearted,
seemed made for just a boy and girl.
I never dreamed, did you, any fall would come in view
so early, early.
Darling if you care, please, let me know,
I'll meet you anywhere, I miss you so.
Let's never have to share another early autumn

~~~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA1JG40zkWA

 

[3113]

I don't like September. Here in SoCal, as 3 knows only too well, it's the month of hot winds off the desert, of brush fires and hundred degree temps for a week. Given a choice, I would probably spend September in Maine or Puget Sound.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Sigh. And you and me both on spending September in the northern part of the opposite coastline. I'm hoping against hope that we break the trend this year and just go into some sort of September rather than the usual fire season, but it's probably too much to hope for.....

 

[Trinique_Fire]

How September Feels To Me

:final trips to Lake Michigan at Warren Dunes, with a sweatshirt to throw on as the sun sets:
:smoked sausage:
:rummage sales:
:bonfires:
:stockpiling jasmine tea:
:cinnamon, pumpkin, nutmeg, cloves:
:honey straws:
:Michigan orchards:

 

[EmeraldKitten]

Fall.
September....
I can't wait til it's over, or at least in the last week so that I can decorate for Halloween.
It smells like leaves and pumpkin spice.
Summer is gone, winter is coming, and my favorite place to be is in the middle.
Country drives with the top down, watching and waiting for the leaves to change colors..
Taking walks (without burning up) and the best sound on earth is the leaves crunching underfoot...

I September.
(And October, and November, and December. My favorites. )

 

[ishtat]

September in Sydney means Spring, at least officially. We really have a summer which extends from mid September or therabouts through to the following May, then a cooler period for 3 or 4 months. This year though there was a frost back in June in the western suburbs the first for about 10 years but we don't get them on the coast

It's a sunny morning fairly clear skies so this afternoon we are taking a walk from Dee Why to Long Reef on the northern beaches.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Sigh. And you and me both on spending September in the northern part of the opposite coastline. I'm hoping against hope that we break the trend this year and just go into some sort of September rather than the usual fire season, but it's probably too much to hope for.....

I read somewhere that we're in a La Nina phase and the cool oceans are responsible for this year's unusually cool summer. It will also likely mean a dry winter but at least it isn't hot. Maybe September will treat us decently for a change.

 

[oggbashan]

...

It's a sunny morning fairly clear skies so this afternoon we are taking a walk from Dee Why to Long Reef on the northern beaches.

That brings back memories of when I was staying with relations at Palm Beach and passed Dee Why on the way to and from Sydney. I tried to swim at all of Sydney's beaches but only managed the Northern ones and Bondi.

But that was nearly 50 years ago. Sydney and its beaches have changed since then.

Og

 

[Saucy_Sage]

Something about the month of September that always feels old fashioned to me. Does it feel that way to you? If so...why is that? By old fashioned, I mean, I start envisioning old phonograph records and vintage autos on winding roads, harvest scenes with faded barns....

How does September feel to you?

You mean like this?

Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh, so mellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain was yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender and callow fellow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

Try to remember when life was so tender
That no one wept except the willow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That dreams were kept beside your pillow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That love was an ember about to billow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

Deep in December, it's nice to remember,
Although you know the snow will follow.
Deep in December, it's nice to remember,
Without a hurt the heart is hollow.
Deep in December, it's nice to remember,
The fire of September that made us mellow.
Deep in December, our hearts should remember
And follow.

​

 

[Athalia]

Autumn songs

For me, the ultimate Autumn song is Joni MItchell's lovely "Urge for Going"

I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town
It hovered in a frozen sky, then it gobbled summer down
When the sun turns traitor cold
and all the trees are shivering in a naked row
I get the urge for going but I never seem to go

I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in

I had me a man in summertime
He had summer-colored skin
And not another girl in town
My darling's heart could win
But when the leaves fell on the ground, and
Bully winds came around, pushed them face down in the snow
He got the urge for going
And I had to let him go

He got the urge for going
When the meadow grass was turning brown
Summertime was falling down and winter was closing in

Now the warriors of winter they gave a cold triumphant shout
And all that stays is dying, all that lives is getting out
See the geese in chevron flight flapping and a-racing on before the snow
They've got the urge for going, and they've got the wings so they can go

They get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in

I'll ply the fire with kindling now, I'll pull the blankets up to my chin
I'll lock the vagrant winter out and bolt my wandering in
I'd like to call back summertime and have her stay for just another month or so
But she's got the urge for going and I guess she'll have to go

She gets the urge for going when the meadow grass is turning brown
And all her empire's falling down

Lovely version by Tom Rush, but Joni's is still my favorite.

 

[3113]

You mean like this?

I was too late. I was going to specifically ban that song. I hate, hate, hate, HATE it!

Did I mention that I hate it?

I also never got musicals that were popular in spite of having a really stupid plot, no real story, and dumb characters just because the tunes were good.

This is more my style.

 

[jehoram]

For me, the ultimate Autumn song is Joni MItchell's lovely "Urge for Going"

Lovely version by Tom Rush, but Joni's is still my favorite.

Aw, you beat me to it! But as much as I like the two artists you named, my favorite is still Dave Van Ronk's. Rush's version is elegaic, Mitchell's is artful, but Van Ronk chills you to your very soul.

 

[Athalia]

Aw, you beat me to it! But as much as I like the two artists you named, my favorite is still Dave Van Ronk's. Rush's version is elegaic, Mitchell's is artful, but Van Ronk chills you to your very soul.

I just got that from iTunes. I see what you mean! I still prefer Mitchell, but OMG, the passion that Van Ronk puts into that song! His voice just shakes with emotion... makes me want to hug and comfort him.

I just played it again. It does grow on you.