Opus 61 - I Love Fall!

It's starting to get colder, confirming to me that Fall is really here. I just love Fall. It's my favorite season. Don't get me wrong, I love the other three seasons also - I enjoy, and very much so appreciate, living in a state that has all four seasons. But Fall is my favorite. There's something about the chill in the air, the leaves changing colors, the excitement of snow to come (yes, excitement, I love snow!)... It's all so wonderful. It's when it finally gets cold that it really feels like football season. I realize that football begins in the summer, but it doesn't feel like football until Fall arrives.

Fall also brings a flood of memories about marching band. I can walk out in the morning and it just feels like marching band - it smells like marching band. I can't really describe it. I guess you have to spend years in early morning rehearsals to fully understand it. But it's just a feeling... I love that feeling. I always loved marching band. I didn't miss it when I stopped - my last season was very stressful. I enjoy the extra time I have when I don't work with marching bands, but sometimes I walk out, feel the "marching band" in the air, and have a little twinge of "oh, it's marching band... I kind of miss it."

I remember, when I was teaching high school, walking out on the field at 5:45 a.m. and thinking (just as Denzel Washington in Remember the Titans), "Yeah, this is my sanctuary right here... this... this is always right." The smell of the early morning dew on the grass, fresh chalk on the field,... ahh, marching band.

I LOVE FALL!