Despite the calendar still very much reading summer, fall is in the air. This I know to be true because the air conditioning in our house is off for the first time in months, the windows are finally open again and my annual late-summer/early fall head cold has arrived early this year.
Aaaaaa-choo!
Late August is always a bittersweet time. The kids are back in school and routines have returned to normal, which means a quiet house during the day, earlier bed times at night and children studying something other than their iPhone/Pad/Book thingies. But it also marks the end of summer as we know it, the season of shorts and swimming and really the ability to do much of anything outdoors until next May.
Oh, sure, we’ll have a few more warm days that tease us between now and when the snow flies. There are even some 90-degree days in the forecast next week, which will rank them among the hottest of the summer despite the calendar turning to September. Labor Day’s comparatively late date this year co-conspires to help milk the last drops out of the season too, keeping seasonal pools like Centennial Beach and others open all the way through Sept. 7. It’s like we get a bonus week!
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As fast as summer flew by, it’s nice to have an extra late-season warm stretch. That means more outdoor dining, more evenings on the patio and more catch in the backyard before we’re quickly able to do none of those. It won’t be long, and the leaves will be falling, littering the lawns we’ve kept so perfectly clear of debris since spring.
Don’t look now, but Halloween costumes and decorations have been out in stores for weeks, despite Oct. 31 still being more than two months away. Before you know it, we’ll be sending our little ghosts and goblins out door to door, begging for candy in one of the quintessential rites of fall.
I remember this time of year from my childhood downstate. The Illinois State Fair, which just concluded its annual run Sunday in Springfield, always marked the end of summer and the return to school when I was growing up. Decades later, nothing has changed – evidenced by the same photos of grandstand concerts and kiddie rides stuffing my Facebook newsfeed for the duration of the fair’s 11-day run just as they do every year.
If you grew up in the Springfield area, the fair was something you did every August, and eventually it was no big deal – maybe you still went as an adult, maybe you didn’t. But my suburban-born-and-raised wife, never having been to the fair before we were married, restored my interest in the event. We’ve made it down to the fair more years than not since we’ve had kids, to eat chocolate-dipped and batter-fried food, tour the livestock barns and witness the Butter Cow – a life-sized bovine likeness carved from butter because … who wouldn’t want a life-sized sculpture of a cow made of butter?
We didn’t make it down to the fair this August though. Maybe next year.
We did squeeze in several camping trips, two to Wisconsin and one to Missouri, with another one back to Missouri planned for October. That’s about the same number as last year, our first full season with our camper in what has become our go-to family activity on the occasional open weekend. But we weren’t able to repeat our trip to Warren Dunes in Michigan, my favorite camping destination to date, with its western views of the sunset over Lake Michigan. Amazing how different the same water can look from a different vantage point.
Our annual neighborhood block party was held this past weekend, always situated on one of the courts or streets nearby, encouraging folks to gather en masse a final time while we still can. Maybe you have one in your neighborhood too, everybody bringing their coolers and lawn chairs, kids parking their bikes and scooters, young and old alike reveling in another tradition that also marks summer’s end. We didn’t make it to the block party this year though due to a family activity already planned for that weekend. Maybe next year.
The last few Augusts have also brought flag football practices and games for our boys. Neither of them a huge fan of the hits that come with tackle football, the flag version has always quenched their thirst for the game nonetheless. One night a week devoted to practice and early Saturday mornings set aside for games, late summer has meant football for us, just as for so many others. But with both boys so much more into baseball at this point, they decided to take a pass on football this season.
And then there are the Cubs, holding down a potential playoff spot in the standings, which also makes things feel as though September can’t really be nearly upon us. By this point in the season, the Cubs have typically long-since extinguished any real hope they and their fans had about playing baseball in October. But something is different about this young group, giving hope to the idea that playoff games might actually be played at Wrigley Field again for the first time since 2008.
And if we’re seriously talking about October baseball in Chicago, fall can’t be far off. But don’t get ahead of yourself. You know what they say … maybe next year.
Now, if I could only shake this head cold.
Twitter: @RobManker
Rob Manker is a freelance writer who lives, works and parents in Naperville.