tree by Joyce Carlson
It is my considered and unscientific opinion that the fall color always peaks on October 10th. Obviously, some years are better than others and sometimes the effect is delayed But I will always insist on the tenth, that the color is peaking.
The 10th always sticks in my mind like an unhinged anniversary, one of those dates of no significance that is so significant.
It may be that it was the day that half the boys in our senior class were expelled from boarding school. They were doing something awful (its hard to remember exactly all these years later) like listening to very bad rock music. Maybe they were smoking pot too. I think, chiefly, they had bad attitudes and didn't want to be in boarding school (as indeed we all did) and so they managed to get themselves removed leaving the grand total of senior boys in our senior class at Five.
Subsequently, I have always connected this event with the leaves peaking in the Southern Tier. For a long time I thought Matt's birthday also was on the 10th. I kept passing by the 7th and finding him looking reproachfully at me, 'Aren't we going to celebrate my birthday?'
'Yes! Absolutely, on the tenth'. Very difficult of him to insist on its being on the 7th.
So, in commemoration of this important day, Matt and I went out to a fancy restaurant last night and to coffee afterward. I had duck confi and Matt had monk fish with shitake mushrooms in a red wine sauce.
2 comments:
Ah, the expulsion of the menfolk in our class (or should I call them boyfolk). I think their main sin was writing a song about the staff at ICA, and subsequently singing it on the BBC. I think it showed a lot of initiative and motivation, frankly. But those missionaries don't like to be made fun of. Especially on the BBC.
Hmmm...couldn't have had anything to do with the fact that they were biking into town and drinking, I don't suppose. Along with the many, many other violations of school rules.
I always have found that particular period very difficult. I mostly remember keeping my head down and mouth shut because I didn't want to remind anyone that my father was the Chair of the School Board and therefore the Chief Demon as far as so many students were concerned. I'm amazed that no one connected the names and turned their rage toward me.
Beautiful tree, though.
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