When I was a kid, this was my favorite time of the year.
All the new car models came out in late September, along with all the new season of TV shows.I think they were timed to coincide and can still hum along to “See the U.S.A. in a Chevrolet.”
Football season started this time of year, followed in a few weeks by the start up of the sugar cane harvest. That always brought Leighton Sugar Mill’s melodious steam whistle. A long, low blast waking us up at 6 a.m. and another calling us home at 6 p.m. every day of the week into the end of the harvest in December.
The Sears Christmas catalog wouldn’t be far off either. It was as thick as the New Orleans phone book, jam-packed with hopes and dreams. I’d read it by flashlight under the covers late into the night.
Fall was in the air and it was exciting.
These days, not so much.
New car models come out with no real rhyme or reason, driven by market studies.
New TV shows come and go. Sure, the new season starts in the fall for some shows. But the shows I really like, Downton Abbey, Longmire, Big Brother and Under the Dome, debut midseason. Duck Dynasty manages to cram two seasons into a year these days.
The nearest sugar mill is 600 miles away and I haven’t seen a Sears Wishbook in 20 years.
All is not lost, though.
I got the new Harbor Freight Tools sales catalog in the mail today. You can get a welding helmet for under $30, decent sized solar panels for under $50.
I think I’ll grab a flashlight and read it under the covers tonight.
