‘SUMMER WANES’

The days are gettin’ shorter, the air and skies more clearer, and the temperature a bit milder with the passin’ of each day. Muscadines and pears are ripening; the second cuttin’ of hay is underway, and best of all, the kids are back in school. Summer wanes, folks. Summer wanes.

          Now, that’s not an entirely bad thing, either.... unless’n you happen to be one of those folks that live to be on the lake or at poolside, or.... you’re one them kids what’s back in school. LOL

          The end of summer, though, means Friday nights spent pullin’ for your local high school football team, listenin’ to the marchin’ band, and makeshift suppers from the stadium’s concession stand. SEC football on Saturdays, where you pull for ‘your’ team regardless of how good, or bad, a season they’re a havin’. Roll Tide Roll!

          The leaves have already started to turn, and before you know it, the mountains hereabouts will look as colorful as a bowl of Fruity Pebbles cereal. And, with Fall comes Praters Mill, the Apple Festival, and Coker Creek’s Autumn Gold Festival.... handmade crafts, toe-tappin’ bluegrass music, cloggin’, and hot apple cider. Also, comes the annual trek to Burt’s Pumpkin Farm to pick out a pumpkin or two, take a hay ride, and eat a hot fried apple pie. And then, the next thing you know, it’ll be time for the fair.... brightly-lit thrill rides, carnies with their ‘odds-stacked-against-you’ games of chance, blue cotton candy, caramel apples, and livestock exhibits.

          Did you realize this past Saturday was openin’ day of dove season? Hunters in shorts and camo t-shirts were posted along the edges of tree lines or by well-positioned round bales of hay in open fields, shotguns at the ready, watchin’ for the most acrobatic, had-to-hit birds that ever flew over a millet field, and by all accounts, the bird count was pretty good, this year. And before you know it, it’ll be deer season.... hunters in head-to-toe camouflage, blaze orange safety vests, headed out to hunting camp. Lawd, I can almost taste the deer tenderloin and biscuit already!

          Oh, and let’s not forget Halloween.... black cats and witches, Jack O’Lanterns, Trick or Treatin’, and spook houses.... nor Thanksgiving, either.... turkey and dressing, pumpkin pie, collegiate football rivalries, and the MACY’S Thanksgiving Day Parade.

A Cataloochee Valley Bull Elk

           Best of all, though, is the month of ‘Camptober’.... you might know it better as October, but to me and mine, it’s the month we spend most weekends camping. In Cataloochee, we get to see and hear the Elk bugling, and at Cades Cove, we enjoy watching the deer and bears and other wildlife, some of which occasionally walk right through the middle of our campsites.

          We go to Tellico for the solitude and peace and quiet of sitting next to the North River, drinking in the smells and colors of autumn. And we’ve found that the sunsets and sunrises atop Huckleberry Bald are second to none.

Crisp, cool mountain air, flannel shirts that smell of wood smoke and the outdoors, big breakfasts of biscuits and gravy, pancakes and bacon washed down with steamin’ hot coffee, bluebird days spent hiking the Southern Highlands or simply sittin’ in the sunshine readin’ a good book, hearty suppers of homemade chili and cornbread, followed by S’mores and scary tales told around a cracklin’ campfire that glows a gorgeous red.... that’s what Fall is all about.

          Like I said before, folks.... Summer’s waning, and Fall is on its way.