Somehow it doesn't ever seem like Fall when the temperature is rushing around 100 and the only leaves that are showing at the ones that peek out from the wooden bins in the crafts store.
Nothing like the real deal. Nothing like taking long drives out to Long Island to pick pumpkins and just stare out the window at the colors. Or driving UpState and throwing your whole body out the window just to catch the Fall Breeze head on. Nothing like it.
The smell of the burning orange leaves combined with the red ones. Do they really have a distinct smell? Does it really matter?
My mother used to send down boxes of leaves for me to "experience" what I'd missed. For the grandchildren to "experience" what they haven't yet seen. It's not the same. You have to jump into a huge pile of them to know what Fall really is about. You have to sit down in a mess of them and just throw them up in the air to "experience" it. You have to live up North. Not in Florida.
I think it's time for a road trip.