Living in Southern California I don't need to try to get a tan. It just happens being outdoors, without going to the beach.
When I was a kid, the last weeks of summer, right before school started, were already cool in the mornings. Maybe, right before the leaves fell, there would be something called "Indian summer." (Why it was called that, I do not know) This was a brief warming before it was no doubt autumn. Walking to the school bus stop, already I was wearing a sweater. Soon it would be a hat and winter coat, gloves and boots.
Right before school started, when I was a kid, I used to start thinking about the school supply I wanted most: a new box of crayons. The smell of those crayons - usually Crayolas - still reminds me of grade school. It was time to replace the tennis shoes - usually Keds - which at the time came in white, navy, or red, with a new pair. Wearing them all summer mine were full of holes. I would usually opt for a different color than the holey ones.
People would see that their sunflower seeds and their garden vegetables in the back yard were done for the season. The earth began to smell different. They would sniff and say, "Fall is in the air."
Fall is never in the air in Southern California. Even before the too hot summers began a few years ago we had heat into October. It didn't cool down too much until Thanksgiving. People would spend Christmas at the beach. In June there is something they call "June Gloom" which actually can happen in July too. It's a time when the sky seems dull or shaded over.
But the other day I met someone from back east who had also transplanted here. We both heard, when we first came, that after a while out blood would "thin" and then we'd start shivering when it was 50 or 60 degrees. Neither of us believed this, but it happened.
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