Try to remember the kind of September when grass was green, and grain was yellow….
Apart from June and April, September probably has more songs than any other month. Even Earth, Wind, and Fire had a hit song for September.
Why shouldn’t we sing about September? It’s a glorious month, in many ways the best of the year. Last week, on August 31, the hot hot summer weather suddenly became glorious, mild September weather. The sun becomes comfortably warm, the breeze pleasantly cool. We see the stars more clearly as the air temperature dips. The autumn wind turns the hills to flame… and you don’t have time for the waiting game.
September has one foot in summer, the other in fall. You may well swim on the first September weekend, and maybe another week, or even two. But by the end of the month, summer will be a pleasant memory. You’ll be trying to remember where you put that sweater, back in April.
Somebody pointed out that Americans by and large don’t think of themselves as workers; they believe that they’re millionaires, who just don’t happen to have any money yet. That helps explain why neither the international workers’ day (May 1) nor the September Labor Day has ever caught on as an actual celebration of labor. Johnny Hart of Binghamton capture the irony in his B.C.” comic strip: on being told that it’s Labor Day, the cave men grumble, “Let’s get it over with,” and haul out their tools.
Instead, the first Monday in September is the last gasp of summer. It slams the door of summer shut, and opens the door of autumn. After that, we turn toward school, fall, and Christmas. I learned long ago that if you have a September event, there’s no use promoting it before Labor Day. Everybody just does a mental data dump, and you have to tell them all over again.
We are now in fall; as far as meteorologists are concerned, it started on September 1. The autumnal equinox comes on September 22, marking the start of astronomical fall.
September traditionally is back-to-school month. My childhood home was often very nerve-wracking, so school for me was a relief. I always loved school. Others hate it, and many can take it or leave it, but however they feel about it, September looms huge in the life of any kid.
September 17 is von Steuben Day, honoring the German hero of our Revolutionary War – the man for whom Steuben County is named! September also brings us Constitution Day, and the birthday of Bilbo Baggins.
Banned Book Week comes in November, reminding us to be ever-vigilant, as many people try to edit other people’s ideas, or even the information that people may be allowed to have.
World War II started on September 1, 1939, and ended on September 2, 1945. It lasted for six years and one day, and Great Britain was in it for six years less one day. It was in September of 1940 that the British people, shaken but not shattered, slowly realized that they had won the Battle of Britain. For the moment they had saved their country, and much of the western world, from Hitlerism.
In our own time, of course, we saw the horrors of September 11, 2001. A hundred Septembers earlier president William McKinley was shot in Buffalo, and soon died of his wound.
September birthdays include Beyoncé , Jesse James, Buddy Holly, Grandma Moses, Milton Hershey, Clayton Moore, Marc Antony, Marco Polo, William Howard Taft, Agatha Christie, J.C. Penny, Sophia Loren, Stephen King, David McCallum, Walter Koenig, Mickey Rooney, Ray Charles, Bruce Springsteen, Jim Henson, and Will Smith. And it was in September that death came for Louis XIV, Sigmund Freud, Oliver Cromwell, Mao Zedong, Nikita Krushchev, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, and Louis Pasteur.
Get outside in September. The sun sets earlier, and after the equinox, the nights will be longer than the days. Enjoy the sun. Enjoy the fall.