Early September Days

It was 1963, and early September found me reunited with friends walking to school together. Along the way we knocked on our neighbor's door to pick up a kid in our class. "Is Brian ready yet?" I recall asking his Mom while she called for him to hurry up and get his things. It was still very hot outside, but a bit cooler in the mornings. This was a transitional time for the weather; the colored leaves of fall were still in their infant stages, and summer was slowly surrendering to the natural order of life. The school was about three quarters of a mile away, and on our walk we dawdled, detoured, and generally took as long as possible to get there. It was early morning for me, I'd just had my breakfast, and already I was looking forward to lunch. September brought excitement of new things, and the coming change in season. The new TV shows were always exciting, and I was crazy excited over the commercials for a new show called "The Outer Limits".

On our walk, we passed by the house that was designated as the local neighborhood haunted house. On a crisp and beautiful September morning it looked innocent enough—run down, and worn—but basically harmless. However, come the gray and cold of October, ghostly eyes watched each time we passed. The house was a perfectly manifest fun spot for us as we dared each other to run up to the front door and ring the bell. None of us ever did that, but the challenge was always open, and the house remained on the road maps of our lives as a very exciting structure. Third grade was a major upgrade from my life as a second grader; we were reading more, and nouns and verbs were coming into play. Like it or not, I was about to be educated.

Early September still reminds me of these wonderful times in an equally wonderful world. My life in those days of 1963 wasn't completely about the bleak days of school, haunted houses, or the fact that summer was dying. It was all about living from day to day and squeezing in as much fun as possible. As a third grader, my biggest problem in life was not having enough army men to make up a battalion, or running out of my favorite cereal. I loved having my family and friends close by, and enjoyed the fact that there were still some sunny and warm weeks left before autumn set up shop. Those early '60s days were a true time of innocence for me. I collected rubber bugs from the vending machine at the corner store, chewed the dried out slabs of bubble gum from card packs, and looked forward to after school cookies. Thoughts of those days come to me now, keeping me wrapped in a warm robe of memories.