Summer in September

Here in the South, summer lasts until September (and sometimes well into October), and its arrival is heralded by the cicadas singing in the trees. When I was a kid, I was scared by the loud, strange noise of the cicadas, and asked my mom what was happening. “It means summer’s here,” she told me, which wasn’t so bad, because it meant that darkness didn’t come until 8 or 9 and I could play outside later, and more importantly, that the fireflies would be out soon. We had a special jar for catching fireflies, with twigs and leaves inside and holes poked into the lid with a fork to let air inside. We wanted them to be cozy, even if we always let them out in the morning.

There’s also a strange kind of melancholy to summer, especially the tail end of it. It’s hard to put my finger on the source of this melancholy – maybe it’s nostalgia for childhood summers, the energy we wish we still had, the excitement over fireflies and new swimsuits and eating watermelon. I haven’t seen a firefly in years, but there’s still time in this Texan summer – after all, it’s only September.

Go drive with the windows down, listen to the cicadas, try to catch some fireflies.

The mixtape “Summer in September” can be found here:
http://8tracks.com/soundtracks4everything/summer-in-september

Tracklisting:

The Box – Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit

The Honest Truth – Typhoon

Interior of a Dutch House – Beirut

La Javanaise – Serge Gainsbourg

Heavy Metal Drummer – Wilco

Freeway – Kurt Vile

Old Old Fashioned – Frightened Rabbit

1995 – The Radio Dept.

The Boy with the Arab Strap – Belle & Sebastian

Arc of Time (Time Code) – Bright Eyes

Black Rain, Black Rain – AA Bondy

Sunday Morning Wednesday Night – Spoon

Misspent Youth – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Wetsuit – The Vaccines

My Fear #1 – Cloud Control

Till next time.