Soundtrack in my head: Beat Happening, “Indian Summer”
I don’t know what it is about this fall’s “Indian Summer” but there’s something about it that seems, well…strange.
Brief spells of summer-like weather in October or even November aren’t unusual. Perhaps it’s because this year’s Indian Summer is so cloudy as to be gloomy. Might it be that the fall colors peaked early and that the outside temperature and the fact that I’m going out without a jacket doesn’t jibe with the mostly bare trees and the layers of leaves on the ground? Or is it something I detected in the unusually high amounts of humidity?
The term “Indian Summer” is centuries old, and certainly precedes talk of global warming. But perhaps with the “winter that wasn’t” at the beginning of the year, leaves appearing on the trees at the end of March, and the triple-digit Fahrenheit weather over the summer, maybe unusually warm weather just seems creepier than in previous years.
After fooling with Mother Nature for so many years–something which we’ve been repeatedly told not to do (and not just on margarine commercials) am I starting to detect fangs in Mother Nature’s beatific smile? Am I starting to worry that the birds chirping sweetly in the neighborhood will suddenly band together and go all Alfred Hitchcock on us?
Not to mention the very term “Indian Summer”–of which the Wikipedia entry gives many explanations for it origin. The Europeans settling this continent–people I am descended from–have not treated Native Americans any better than our natural environment has been treated, and that still continues to this day. I sometimes wonder about that haunting us. Like I have often said, there are lessons that we Americans have to learn, and we seem to be choosing to learn them the hard way.
As I write this, rain is beginning to fall and the 70 degree weather is giving way to 40 degree weather. In any case, no mention of “Indian Summer” can be made without mentioning the awesome Beat Happening lo-fi indie rock classic from the late 80’s. Crude on many levels yet with a lot of heart, I always enjoy listening to this song…
