August & September

What marks the end of summer? Three major indicators for me: no more sweet cherries (my favorite fruit) from California, Washington, or Oregon; kids heading back to school; and the beginning of the NFL season.

These days, kids are already back in school. I live near three schools and see them trudging by every morning, backpacks loaded. Blue Book’s Jason Carty has something to say about packing school lunches, so check it out here.

In my youth (yeah, a while ago), we didn’t start school until after Labor Day. It was a mix of good and the inevitable: I would always visit my grandparents for the Labor Day parade, which was awesome, but then school followed.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoyed learning once I became a voracious reader.

The end of August also means the arrival of September, one of my favorite months. Weather-wise, it’s usually still warm but not hot or overly humid.

It also means, hopefully, most of the nasty storms are behind us—there’s been much turbulence in the Midwest, with Illinois already having over 200 confirmed tornados this year, the most in the nation.

On the literary side, September is the birth month of many amazing authors including Miguel de Cervantes (9/29/1547), Samuel Johnson (9/18/1709), Agatha Christie (9/15/1828), H.G. Wells (9/21/1866), T.S. Eliot (9/26/1888), Leo Tolstoy (9/9/1890), F. Scott Fitzgerald (9/24/1896), and William Faulkner (9/25/1897).

It also marked the debut of some literary gems: Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language (1755); Beatrix Potter’s first illustration of a rabbit named Peter (1893); and L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900).

Then there’s the first serialization of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (1929); several early Nancy Drew books like #4, The Mystery at Lilac Inn (1930); Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms (1929) and The Old Man and the Sea (1952); John Steinbeck’s East of Eden (1952); and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962).

And, of course, last but not least, September means the beginning of regular season NFL games. Yep, this one is huge for me as a diehard fan.

So as we transition out of August and into September, you know where I’ll be on Sundays, Monday and Thursday nights, the occasional Friday, and a few holidays. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Can’t wait!