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The calendar says summer, but upper Midwestern weather screams FALL! 4 days ago I stopped wearing sandals. It was a depressing decision to wear socks again.

I’ll admit it… I love crisp air and wrapping up in quilts and feeling warm and cozy. I love fresh apples and apple cider at farmers market.
I love crunchy leaves, Halloween, Corn Mazes, Pumpkin patches, Autumn harvest festivals, Oktoberfest, and Thanksgiving.

My life, my brain is full of soundtracks. Pick almost any song in my MP3 collection and I’ll probably be able to remember the first time the song stuck with me. That song is forever cemented in my subconscious and associated with a season, an event, a person, a place, a mood.

Sure, it’s been said that odors can bring back strong memories, and that is true for me as well, but music is much stronger an association.

Back before iPods we still made CD mixes for driving (and before that, I still did tape mixes). I can pop in our “New York driving mix” and visualize with great clarity great swaths of the New Jersey Turnpike, the breathtaking (if smoggy) sight of the Twin Towers and the Statue of Liberty from the Turnpike.

Listening to “Keep Myself Awake” by Black Lab on the Buffy Soundtrack reminds me of driving 10 mph on the Ohio Turnpike just before Christmas 2004. We were driving through an epic winter storm and I really was trying to keep myself awake and alert. Although the sight of semi trucks in the ditch every mile was enough to keep me on my toes. Soooo glad we had the Subaru. Really. Really. Stupid.

So I’m trying to create an Autumn play list for my iPod. So far I have 2 songs. I have other songs that go on the list and then are removed. Those songs make me nostalgic and melancholy and I’m not sure I want that in a play list I will be listening to at work and around the house.

But as we plan our first roast dinner with friends for Sunday, it occurs to me that we should be a bit melancholy in the fall. Sure there will be more warm days, but more often than not, the days will be cool and eventually cold. We’ll reflect back on the years that were and prepare for the winter ahead. We may love the autumn, but it’s always hard to say goodbye to shimmering swimming pools, backyard cook-outs, cold beer on a hot day, summer vacations, and the delicious feeling of always being warm.