How fall engages all five senses

Recently, I stepped out my front door and looked up to find a gray, cloudy sky. I felt a sharp breeze blow past. Immediately following that came a thought I hadn’t thought in months: “I should have worn a jacket.”

And then I smiled. I wasn’t sad. I neither mourned the end of sunny days nor dreaded the oncoming, unstoppable death of almost all greenery. Instead, I smiled, looking forward to fall, my favorite season.

Aside from my birthday (July 8, if you wanted to know), I don’t find much to get excited about in summer. No longer in school, I can’t recite that “no more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks” line anymore. Now, as an actual adult, summer just means more work. Again. Like any other time of year.

Unless you’re a kid, summer is dull. Everything seems to move slower; the days drag on and make work seem like twice the chore it normally is. When you couple that with a miserably dry and scorching summer like we had this year, it can feel literally like eternal damnation.

But enough of my whining. The earth has to circle the sun, and for a few months out of those 365 days, our particular chunk of this planet is subjected to that constant deluge of sunlight. It’s necessary. Like taxes, or leaving a tip for mediocre service. I get it.

But then, the earth turns some more, and we get a couple of glorious months of the one season that got it right: fall (or autumn, if you feel fancy).

Fall really does have it all (I did not mean for that to rhyme). It’s by far the best-looking season, when trees get makeovers as their rather passé green leaves get new looks of crimson and gold, just in time for fashion week. What’s that, spring looks better, you say? I never cared for flowers.

Fall is also the best-tasting of the seasons. I realize that sounds odd, but let me explain. Yes, in summer and spring, people like to grill and make burgers, hotdogs, potato salad, etc. But how boring is that? In winter, people revert to their native roots and eat purely for survival or to take their minds off the freezing cold.

Fall, however, has some truly unique cuisine. If fall were a restaurant, it would be a trendy Chicago spot where you’d have to be–in-the-know to be seated.

The obvious point here is Thanksgiving. I think I’ve made my point with just that day, but there are so many foods that only come out during fall or are so unique to the season, it feels wrong to eat them any other time. I’m talking about caramel apples, squash, soups of all kinds, and apple cider to name a few.

But there’s one I’m forgetting, you say? Of course I couldn’t forget pumpkin; I was simply saving it for last. Pumpkin is like the Kevin Bacon of fall – it’s in everything. There’s pumpkin pie, bread, lattes, cheesecake, ice cream, and tacos. Yes, even tacos. I was looking up “pumpkin” followed by another food item in Google, trying to find one too ridiculous to exist, and yet, there I found a recipe for pumpkin tacos. Pumpkins are just so versatile!

And then there is perhaps the best facet of fall. It’s a cure to the summer slothery. Everything picks up in fall: school starts again, new TV shows debut and old ones start new seasons, the best movies are released and make their pitch for an Oscar, and, of course, football season. People seem to be awakened by fall’s presence, except of course for that first Sunday in November, when we all gain an hour of sleep – all thanks to Fall and Benjamin Franklin.

Maybe it’s one of those terrible Chicago weather things, but fall seems so fleeting. The leaves look great in their gold and red shades, but even that is just nature’s hourglass reminding you that this season is almost over. Even as this column prints, half of the leaves are off the trees, with more to follow. So put on some fall music – something folky like Simon and Garfunkel or Neil Young, sip on a pumpkin margarita (yes, those exist), and enjoy.

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