Goodbye Summer

This is it, the real dividing line between summer and autumn. Labor Day has always been the beginning of autumn in my mind. The summer tourist traffic along Lake Shore Drive is replaced by school buses and parents taking the little children to school. My grass grows perceptively slower, meaning that I don't have to mow the lawn as often. In the garden, the cucumbers have stopped producing fruit and if there is any corn left out there, it will be terrible. Don't eat it. When I was a kid there was a real line separating summer from fall. It was called the first day of school. In our town the first day of school came immediately after Labor Day and the Tinley Park Fall Festival, a Bacchanalian carnival of cotton candy and dangerous rides operated by sketchy carnies. It was so low brow and unsophisticated, I absolutely loved it. Now that I am many decades past worrying about school, or a job for that matter, autumn is actually a decent season. The turning of the leaves, the brisk days, and the promise of watching football on Sunday gives it a very special feeling. You have the World Series in the fall, something that Chicagoans, at least those on the North Side, never used to care much about. The fall season means apple cider and swapping out the petunias in the window box for mums. We have Halloween to look forward to and finally Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, that last big holiday before winter sets in. Ah winter, now that's another story all together.