a letter from the editor “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall” —F. Scott Fitzgerald Growing up in West Virginia, we had four distinct seasons: A cold snowy winter, allergies, er, I mean flowers and rain in the spring, hot summers, and my favorite, a cool and crisp fall. The leaves are changing, pumpkins are out, Halloween, bonfires, football, sweatshirts and blankets. The first time I moved to the south in April of 2013 I left West Virginia and it was 32 degrees with snow on the ground. I arrived in Jackson Mississippi it truly felt like spring more pollen than I had ever seen in my entire life! Summer that year was hot, a hot that I didn’t know existed and I was introduced to real humidity. So imagine my next surprise when mid-September rolls around I have a hot pumpkin coffee, a flannel jacket and jeans on and it’s still 80 degrees. Then October came, and Halloween and I remember thinking how frustrating it was for me as a kid who had to wear a jacket over my costume because it was so cold in West Virginia during that time. Superheroes didn’t wear a jacket!
Logically, I thought maybe winter won’t be so bad. I remember it being cold for two weeks in January and one tiny flake of snow falling from the sky and my husband says, “How was your first southern winter?” “Magical”, I said, “I could get used to this.” By early February it felt like spring and not only was I used to a new set of seasons, but I truly loved it. I had never experienced a winter without brutal cold and snow. In hindsight, I feel like that was my training ground, so when the time came and I moved to Beaufort, it wasn’t such a surprise how different the seasons are. I knew what to expect and I could not wait! Extended warm weather and more time outside. While all my friends back home are talking about how cold it is outside, I share that it’s so nice we have all the windows open. Plus, I can still enjoy my pumpkin coffee, only now it’s iced and I’m sipping it on the beach. Aw. Much better!
But in the south, it felt very much like summer to me, in fact, it didn’t feel like fall until late November or early December.
Fall 2021 | 12
