With all apologies to T.S. Eliot, April is not the cruelest month. In the UP, October might be.
The month can start with a last taste of summer, like today, and end with us wondering if the snow day calculator will say that school might be canceled.
That’s the kind of month October is in the UP. There are changes a-coming, some we notice because they’re so big, while others run under the radar ready to pop up and surprise us.
October is not just the time of the year in the UP when the leaves change & the temperatures drop. Nope.
October is also the time when the shirt you dig out for this Friday’s Plaidurday is the one you’ll be wearing for the next eight months.
October is the time when yard signs begin their yearly metamorphosis from rummage sales to political endorsements.
October is the time when you get your snowblower out and tuned up– just in case.
October is the time when you drink the last of your summer beer, and then start in on your winter beer.
October is the time when you go out and buy more Halloween candy because you seem to have eaten the Halloween candy you bought when it first went on sale back in August.
October is the time when words like “chook,” “pank,” “rubbers,” “beaters,” and “choppers” start to enter your vocabulary.
October is the time when Red Wings fans actually have one small glimmer of hope.
October is the time when you no longer complain when your furnace kicks on. You welcome it.
And finally, October is the time when one of the UP’s greatest resources–its snowbirds–begin their long & storied annual migration to Michigan’s third peninsula, Florida.
Today, it may seem like we’re in the middle of our third bout of summer, but never fear. October’s just toying with us; by the time the end of the month rolls around, all of those changes– and probably a few more I didn’t even mention– will have come to pass.
Buckle up.
I’m Jim Koski, and that’s another slice of “Life in the 906.”
