Even though fall officially begins at 12:03 a.m. Sept. 23, the real fall is right here, right now.

The signs?

• The produce offered near Hosmer field: corn and apples, side by side. It doesn’t get better.

• I’m bagging green tomatoes and baking zucchini bread.

• Ray and Winnie Barker’s lettuce has bolted.

• The first scarlet leaves appeared last week.

• Mums materialize.

• Summer folk are flying south. So are birds.

• Terry Flynn is stacking firewood.

• Screens are coming down.

It’s fall all right.

There’s a melancholy about fall. Looking back on the summer gone by, I admit to regrets. I didn’t climb Whitecap. Didn’t fence the garden. Didn’t get raspberries for the Christmas pie. Didn’t get a tan.

Fortunately, there’s so much going on this early fall time that regrets can be put in storage along with the terrific seersucker dress from Marden’s that never got shortened.

Kids return to school this week. Watch those yellow buses and wonder how school budgets are affected by fuel prices. School opening signals the Rumford library to resume its Saturday opening hours (Sept. 9). Library Friends officer Anne Wood tells me there’ll be another silent film screening there Sept. 15.

Fall and clubs and organizations launch the new program year.

The Rumford Book Club celebrates its 100th anniversary on Sept. 14 at the Hotel Harris with a fashion show of period dress and dainty food. I’m bringing cucumber sandwiches, crusts removed, of course!

Lots going on in this fall, my favorite season.



Linda Farr MacGregor is a freelance writer from Rumford.