Loving Autumn

I have always thought Autumn to be the best time to decorate. There is such an abundance of choice: pumpkins, gourds, hay bales, corn stalks, scarecrows, chrysanthemums, Halloween creatures and such.

People in New England love to decorate with corn stalks, scarecrows and hay bales. You see a great many homes taking this last stab at color before the winter descends and turns everything grey and white. I have been planting chrysanthemums. I'm also buying the small colorful gourds and miniature hay bales to create a centerpiece for the table. We have a party every Fall and we're getting ready for it in advance.

Halloween is just around the corner and that is fun no matter where you live. Everybody gets into the act.

We once lived in an historic part of Richmond, Virginia, popularly known as The Fan. The Fan is a Georgetown-style neighborhood of brick town homes and row houses with tiny front yards and sidewalks. Every Halloween, one block up, was the most popular Halloween trick-or-treat street in the city. This particular block went all out to decorate. Ghosts, goblins and witches were strung across the street from one upper story to another, flying back and forth. Tombstones with every conceivable inscription were laid out in front yard squares, some with hands trying to dig their way out of the graves. Little white ghosts, made with Styrofoam balls wrapped in tiny white cloths that tightened and trailed beneath hung from the trees. My mother-in-law said these were "gumps" an old fashioned term for the decoration. Many neighbors filled lunch-sized brown paper bags with sand, inserting lit candles for a shadowy effect. Elaborately carved pumpkins decorated every porch, stoop and window. People dressed as witches, ghouls or dead people hid in bushes by their front doors to scare the be-Jesus out of visitors. One guy had an old fashioned cheap coffin in his yard, narrow at the foot and broad at the top. He was dressed as Dracula and would slowly raise the lid and sit up as people approached his front steps. I've never seen anything like it before or since.

Corn mazes seem to be the popular attraction now. Many farmers have their corn fields plowed into elaborate configurations and charge people money to find their way in and out. From the sky these mazes are quite beautiful. Great money maker for the farmer and alot of fun for the participant.

Here's to crisp apples, changing leaves, hot cider, cool nights, thick soups and crackling fires.

More on Sarah Palin

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/the-mirrored-ceiling/?em
Judith Warner's "Domestic Disturbances" blog today sums up my feelings about the Republican Convention, vice presidential nominee and the media as well as the constituent reaction. Let's just hope this is not our next President and Vice President. Four more years of Republican ideals and economic pursuits and the middle class will be fleeing the US borders into Canada and Mexico. I guess the top 1% will finally rule the country and they'll have the slave labor of the bottom 10% to rely on. As for the rest of us? We'll be trying to get work permits and long term visas anywhere but here.

California Girl: I am in my head

My husband repeatedly wonders why I call myself "California Girl" at the tender age of 56.

"Why not 'California Woman?'" he asks.

"Because 'California Girl' is more honest."

"But you're a woman, not a girl, " he insists.

"I am a girl in my head."

And that's it. I am still a girl and I do not apologize. I think young even if I don't necessarily feel or look it any longer. At first, when I picked that moniker, I felt a little uncomfortable, as though I no longer deserved the descriptive noun "girl". But, I decided to go with it anyway. My reasons were simple. My husband and I have moved around this country alot. Everywhere we have lived that wasn't in the state of California, I would sooner or later get the nickname, "California Girl".

I have always liked the nickname because it's been bestowed with love, sometimes a bit of envy and often alot of curiosity. Even in this day and age, it's amazing the number of people who've never visited California. I love my home state and I'm very proud to be a Californian: fruits, nuts, warts and all. California is full of innovators, movers, shakers, and people who do things. It's not like New England where everyone sits on their hands and waits for the next wave of optimism to pass. It's not like the South where they "Ya'll" you to death, smiling while they pick your pocket or try to determine who your "people" are. It's not like the Midwest where everyone is down to earth and just plain nice. (I love mid-westerners). It's CALIFORNIA. It's full of fast talking, bullshitting, in-hock-up-to-their-eyeballs people who are what they drive, wear or live in. It's also full of creative, free spirits who just couldn't live anywhere else for some of the reasons already stated.

Do I think it's perfect? Hell, no! If I did, I'd live there full time. But it is home. It is what I am most familiar with and used to and where I'll probably end up; back with the same friends I've had since high school, enjoying the weather, the wide open spaces, the great stretches of highway through the desert, along the coastline and into the mountains. California has everything if you are willing to drive to get it.

Are we superficial? Yes, alot of people out there are. But, so what?There are lots of wonderful people out there and most of them are still from some place else.