Autumn is wonderful time of year

Fall is possibly my favorite time of year. The air is no longer heavy, instead it is crisp and cool, beckoning me to go outside. The leaves have begun to fall. All of the plants that are living inside for the winter have already been moved to their cold weather homes. There is a sense of urgency that warns me to finish up my ongoing projects, especially ones that have to do with anything outside.

I miss going over to the neighbor’s house to pick apples like we did when I was young. There was always fresh cider and honey to buy, along with the apples. I don’t remember if they also made apple butter or not.

I am told that the apple orchard has been gone for many years and is now home to several families. Nothing stays the same.

That is a good thing. Sometimes it seems that I am falling farther and farther behind in a race to keep up with the rest of the world. I can barely figure out how to use my flip phone. My daughter gave me a smartphone and to her dismay, I begged her to lend me a kid to teach me how to use it

I never did figure it out and decided to stay with the flip phone instead. I secretly long for the old black phone with the extra long cord. It never got lost. It never lost the signal. It was a lot cheaper than today’s phones. Oh, and it never took pictures. We had cameras for that.

Fall is also a time of new beginnings. School starts again and no matter what grade our children are in, it is a time of making new friends and trying to figure out exactly what it is that our teachers want us to say.

I remember thinking that I would never use many of the things I learned in school. True, I have never diagramed a sentence or had to remember all the dates of all the wars we humans insist on fighting, but I actually did use much of that confusing algebra and even a bit of geometry.

The most useful class I ever took was an experimental one. They were trying out a course on speed reading. I’m so glad that it was an ungraded class. I felt like I was constantly scrambling to keep up with the words racing by on the screen and falling more and more behind. I can now finish a  paperback book in an afternoon and still tell you what it was about. I learned far more than I realized.

I have heard it said that we spend the first couple of years of school learning to read and the rest of our lives reading to learn. This was before YouTube, Wikipedia and the endless and often unreliable information found online. 

I also found that the bookkeeping classes were useful. Each numeral had its own space. That was so much better than the wavy line of numbers I usually made.

One thing that has never been useful is the dreaded dodgeball games. Once I was the only one left on my team. I assumed that meant that the game was over. The instructor kept telling me to throw one of the balls back. Why should I?  They already won the game. I don’t remember if I ever did throw the ball or not.

One of the best things about autumn is that I never again have to play dodgeball. Instead I can concentrate on enjoying the beautiful weather or if it is raining curl up with a good book. I do like this time of year.