ROSEMARY HARRIS: Back in the day, this time of year was filled with good news/bad news.The bad news was that summer was ending.
The days would no longer be spent at the beach with friends and family, riding the waves at Rockaway and Riis Park.
Working on my Bain de Soleil tan at Brighton and Manhattan Beach (for years I thought I had dark skin until I stopped tanning.) Endless days to read, play and - whatever the heck we wanted.
Seeing school chums again. Making new friends.
Buying school supplies - I still have a thing for office supplies, pens, pencils, reams of snow-white paper waiting to be filled. 
The September issue of Seventeen magazine - fantasizing about perfect outfits with matching knee socks (that ceased to matter in junior high school when we were allowed to wear jeans but I really cared about it in grade school.) Look at this, young girls still want to have Shiny Hair and Look Pretty! thirty years later. And longer probably if I'd found any from my day.Bye bye Beach Boys, Jan and Dean and the other summer staples. Hello, the new fall tv shows (I think they start whenever they want these days.)
These days, I'm going to miss fresh fruit, watermelon salad, my garden and kayaking whenever I feel like it.
I'm looking forward to Hank and Roberta's new books, my annual September visit to Cape Cod, the Brooklyn Book Festival - where I'll be interviewing Mary Higgins Clark - Bouchercon and the new season of The Walking Dead!
What about you? What are you going to miss most as summer ends and what are you looking forward to this fall?
Monday's Winner - Thelma Straw! Email me at rosemary@rosemaryharris.com to collect your free copy of Slugfest
Funny about Seventeen Magazine: I kept thinking that if I fixed my hair like her, I'd actually look like her. Fail.
ReplyDeleteWill miss: luscious heirloom tomatoes. Sunshine coming from high in the sky. Sandals every day. Sweet crisp corn.
Looking forward to: My own first mystery coming out (squee!). Really good fresh apples. Wearing jeans without feeling overheated in them. Digging up my lawn and replacing it with vegetable beds for the spring. NOT looking forward to dark short days, though.
Wearing jeans without feeling overheated! That's a good one. Resurrecting the black jacket collection!!
ReplyDeleteI started to write, "wearing jeans without feeling hot in them," but then -- don't we all aspire to feel hot in our jeans? ;^)
ReplyDeleteGood point!
ReplyDeleteNO, no, no! Summer's not over.
ReplyDeleteHowever. Leather jackets will once again be available.
Didn't it go by so quickly? Yikes.
My birthday is in September so I always looked forward to that. As a child! LOL Not so much anymore since I hit the milestone 6-0 last year.
ReplyDeleteI still love the idea of school supplies and get a tingle seeing them all prominently in stores these days. I love to hangout in bookstores and office supplies stores. I have a passion for writing pens and I much prefer to write a letter in longhand than send an email.
And I love "football clothes." It's what I called wool kilts and sweaters and corduroy slacks, etc. Fall is my favorite time of the year and it's always so beautiful in New England. So I never regret the passing of summer.
And now we get to look forward to Edith's new book!
Just saw the lovely note on your blog - and sent a reply to the addy you gave. Merci bien! T. Straw
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, the back-to-school issues! I was a big fan of Ingenue Magazine; anyone remember that one?
ReplyDeleteI will miss my garden terribly, but since I'm about to not have that garden any more it will be a permanent thing. Bittersweet ending to summer this year. But I hope to have a new garden soon, and was salivating over a White Flower Farm mailing just a few minutes ago.
But onward! To sweaters and wool jackets, and hot spiced apple cider. We can already feel a little bit of fall here, with crisp, cool mornings.
Football clothes! Absolutely - I used to call it Sweater Weather. Leather. Is anyone else lusting over the over teh elbow leather gloves I've seen in magazines? I guess you can't take the Seventeen out of the girl.
ReplyDeleteRo. Yes. I want the gloves. I mean--they're practical, right?
ReplyDeleteYes. We can wear them at Bouchercon.
ReplyDeleteI will miss nothing about summer. It has been a misery. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with my non-grumpy self in fall!
ReplyDeletePeople love the beach in summer, but it's madness to get there and back during the season. I usually treat myself to a couple of days in a beach hotel after the summer rush ends. Anybody wanna join me?
My very favorite thing right now as summer comes to an end and fall is just about here? The simple fact that because I'm now retired I don't have to work the first week of the academic year in an academic department at Appalachian State University. You have no idea how happy this makes me. (sigh)
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Bouchercon... I'm looking forward to Bouchercon! The Reds (all but one) will be there... more about that next week!
ReplyDeleteHaving just staggered in from trimming my front hedges and weeding, I won't miss plants growing faster than I can keep up with them. Though I'm grateful that we had a great summer in terms of rain and sunshine that are causing the problem.
And I hereby declare a moratorium on entering a clothing or office supplies store for the next 6 weeks. It's dangerous out there.
I'm planning to go to Bouchercon this year. How about a JRW meetup?
ReplyDeleteI won't miss much from this summer. It's been miserable out here. We've got another Red Flag Warning day today. So hot and winds picking up. A real threat for more wildfires in this drought-stricken area.
ReplyDeleteWhat I look forward to in fall: Everything! Bouchercon--this will be my first. Hank's, Roberta/Lucy's, and Edith's books coming out. Rain! Cool weather--or at least non-heat-wave weather. My birthday. All the appearances, readings, workshops I've got scheduled for fall. Handknitted wool and alpaca socks. School and office supply sales.
I'd be happy if my year were divided between spring and fall. Those other two seasons can get pretty miserable here.
I am so sad to miss Bouchercon this year! waaahhhh.
ReplyDeleteBut - I'm already registered for Malice next year. As soon as I saw Laura Lippman would be Toastmaster and Laurie King Guest of Honor, I signed up.
I am looking forward to some awesome microfiche from the 1860: you can't do that in warm weather Also boots.
ReplyDeleteAnd blazers
Seventeen Magazine! And I do remember Ingenue. Oh, how I wanted those knee socks and sweaters and wool plaid skirts--although in Texas you were lucky if you got to wear them before the end of October...
ReplyDeleteThis year I'd have said I couldn't WAIT for summer to end, but since last week we've had totally bizarre mid-August cool spell. Lows in the 60s. Windows open at night. Sitting on the porch in the evenings. Sitting on my deck right now with my computer desk, which I haven't been able to do since early June.
I had a thing for school supplies, too, Ro. It's still dangerous to let me in an office supply store, and my favorite drooling-over catalogs are Levenger and Fahrney's Pens. Geeksville:-)
You all say goodbye to summer without me. I'm hanging on to every last bit. It's so short and intense out here -- and started late this year, after a cold, wet June -- and I spent most of my days inside finishing up my ms. So I'm just going to use my imagination and PRETEND as long as possible.
ReplyDeleteUntil the siren song of those jeans and sweaters and leather jackets sweeps me along in its embrace.
Rosemary,
ReplyDeleteI always get melancholy at the end of summer. Every year it goes by so fast. But, I’m with you - can’t wait for the new season of Walking Dead!
Robert D.
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ReplyDelete(Phooey, posted from the wrong login.)
ReplyDeleteI will miss my peaches. I've been gorging on them all summer, and they're going to disappear soon.
However, the appeal of cute jackets, sweaters, and boots (yes, even here in southern California) can't be denied.
See you all at Bouchercon!
I hate winter. Always have. It's even difficult for me to get through autumn, because I know what's coming. Yes, this summer has had some extremes here in southern CT, but we have had more than our share of extreme winter weather. This past winter was a blessing - almost no snow. I feel like I come alive in summer; no fears about walking outside and slipping or falling on ice or snow -doctors don't like it if you have hardware in your body and you fall; no need to wear sweaters or jackets; no need to shovel snow (even condo dwellers are required to shovel snow off their decks and to shovel their cars out of their parking spaces so they can get their cars out of the way of the plows that plow out the main parts of the parking lots; if you have medical limitations you can forget trying to hire someone to shovel for you -the job is too small for the professionals and kids just are not available,even as volunteers)or clear ice off the windshield; no worries about some idiot following too closely behind your car on icy roads.
ReplyDeleteI always miss the abundance of fresh fruits, especially berries, as summer ends.
What I do like is all the shelves of school and office supplies in the store. I always feel like I should be stocking up on something!
I''m not looking forward to my return engagement as Chief Homework & Bedtime Nazi. I have enjoyed doing things like attending late movies and driving in the car while singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Livin' on a Prayer".
ReplyDeleteI'm with Leslie, I'm not giving up on summer! For us along the California coast, late summer means mornings with no (frigging) fog. Warm temps in the mid 70s to low 80s. But it also brings something I hate seeing so soon...Christmas ads right around the corner. Seriously? Do we have to do that already?
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Rosemary!
ReplyDeleteI never really got into Seventeen magazine. I usually had my nose stuck in a Horse & Hound :)
I'm so looking forward to Bouchercon this year. And almost all the Reds are going to be there? Can I tag along on the strength of my honorary status?
What I'm looking forward to? The smell of fallen leaves, not having to cut the grass every ten minutes, and that beautiful crisp clear winter light.
Downside? Six months of slush. I'm arranging winter wheels and tyres for my car as we speak ...
Oh, and congrats on the imminent book, Edith! And to Roberta and Hank, of course :)
Oh, the list could go on forever...I look forward to colored tights with boots, and my cool vintage jackets, and planting decorative cabbages, and switching to flannel sheets, and hot baths, and Halloween/autumnal decorations, and soups simmering in the crock pot, and the "new year" feeling that comes with September--start fresh, new goals, get hyped up for fiction again after a distracted summer (as summer, especially August, always seems to be), and a weekend away to the coast--no tourists! dramatic weather!--and the long, orangey twilights, and, so much...
ReplyDeleteWhat will I missed about summer? Being a Pacific-Norhtwester: the sun. Also, walking my dog without having to change into rain gear.
Missing the beach at the end of the summer? Not so much. But I will miss my pots of white petunias on the doorstep . . . and all the fresh berries . . . and the warm weather. [I’d much rather be warm in summer than cold in winter.]
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the cooler weather that brings autumn flowers and leaf-peeping . . . and out come all the yummy sweaters and jackets I’ve tucked away because the weather was simply too warm for them.
School and office supplies? Oh, yes, I am so there! Pencils . . . I love pencils [and fancy pens with sparkly ink] . . . and really nice notebooks and writing paper. [I adore the Levenger catalogue].
Best of all? Sitting in the shade with a really good book, which I’ve given up for the summer because it’s just too hot outside.
Summer is coming to a glorious end with my signing a two-book contract with Seventh Street books this week. Looking forward to a bang-up Bouchercon.
ReplyDeleteI've always loved fall--back to school, new clothes, opera season starts. The California Bay area has its summer in October and November, so I'm looking forward to the end of cold, foggy mornings and the onset of lovely "summer" days.
But I'm with Edith about tomatoes--and peaches, and okra (why is summer about food?).
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ReplyDeleteZoe...absolutely..honorary Red at Bcon!
ReplyDeleteI went to a puppet parade today in Brooklyn and it felt like fall was in the air. Drinks at the River cafe watchin' the river flow. Starting to think about which palnts to overwinter...OMG Ingenue! I remember that...
Ingenue! Hilarious...
ReplyDeleteBut how about the Fall VOGUE? Irresistible!
ZOe, yes, indeed!
KAren in Ohio--cannot wait. oxo
Zoe, I think at Bouchercon we should have a get-together of all honorary Reds and back-bloggers with the real Red gals. At the bar. Only, do you think Boston is ready for all that sparkling wit and trouble with a capital T? And the laughter? And the dead-body-hiding and methods-of-ingenious-murder talk?
ReplyDeleteTerry, what great news on your contract! Congratulations! Mazel tov!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I love my office supplies. I love rollerball pens, especially Uniball and Pilot -- no ballpoints for me. Of course with the liquid ink sometimes it smears, but then it's like using an old-fashioned fountain pen. I like colored notebook paper. I guess I'm a big kid. One year I bought a Hello Kitty notebook with pink paper and it said Lost in the 80's on it.
ReplyDeleteI used to subscribe to Seventeen magazine. Anyone remember Teen magazine from the 80's? I subscribed to that too. I think I read a few issues of Y.M. It used to stand for Young Miss and now I think they say it stands for Young and Modern. Weird how they can change that, right?
Bouchercon's in Cleveland? I'm in Toledo, only about two hours away on the turnpike! Can't afford to go. I believe that mystery conventions are expensive for fans. Don't they cost a few hundred dollars to attend? If I win Publishers Clearing House I'll go (ha, ha).
Wearing shorts with the sun on my shoulders and showing my tattoos. Reading endless books. Since i'm retired no work or school to go back too, but I am looking forward to the Fall season of the Met Opera and the New York City Ballet and other cultural diversions, and I hope it snows this winter since I live in New Jersey and winter was a bust last year.
ReplyDeleteBeing a teacher, usually I dread the end of summer. However, this summer has been so hot here, with a record number of smog alert, high pollen days, and heat emergencies that I've been trapped in the house to the point where I'm looking for Kathy Bates to make me write more! Fall has to bring an end to some of this.
ReplyDeleteHere in Georgia, I will miss the sweet smell of honeysuckle and the tree frog serenades. I'm looking forward to a chill in the air and Friday night football games.
ReplyDelete