Fall is in the air

By Alonzo Weston

With all of its pumpkin spice and the decay of nature, autumn is my favorite season.

The weather is crisp and cool, the leaves are beautiful in death and it’s harvest time with the smell of pumpkin spice and bonfires filling the air.

My son and grandkids were born in late summer and fall so I have a few birthday parties to attend. Halloween, one of my mom and I’s top holidays, ends my favorite autumn month of October.

I love seeing the kids coming into my neighborhood in flame-retardant and homemade Halloween costumes for trick or treating. The little ones get the most candy here.

People think you have to go to the New England states to enjoy the fall colors and atmosphere, but we have it all right here as well.

Take a short drive to Atchison, Kansas, and see the colorful landscape of the Loess bluffs. Drive down Ashland and marvel at the varied Crayola box tapestry of the maple and oak trees that line the avenue.

We have our own Renaissance Festival south of town and haunted house walking tours in Midtown. On the North Side, there is the old Beattie mansion that’s reportedly full of real ghosts and haunts from earlier days when the place was an asylum.

The orchards around here have hayrides and pumpkin festivals for kids and adults who still retain their childhood enjoyment.

There are Oktoberfests all around with beer and brats galore to commemorate the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxony Hildburghausen.

It’s harvest time with grain trucks on our country roads and highways delivering their goods to the mills.

Of course, there’s football. There are our world champion Kansas City Chiefs, the Missouri Tigers, Kansas Jayhawks and K-State Wildcats as well as our local high school teams.

I live within walking distance of Central High School and there’s nothing more enjoyable than strolling to the games on Friday nights, shuffling through the fallen leaves with the smell of cocoa and hot dogs in the air coupled with the roar of the crowd inside Noyes Field. I love going to area high school football games on Friday nights, especially in the small surrounding communities. It’s like a Hallmark movie in real life with parents on the sidelines and wooden vendor booths selling coffee and popcorn for 1950s prices.

Autumn around here is one of our jewels and we need to recognize it as such. We have plenty to offer here in the fall. Enjoy.