(My Devious Reverse-Psychology Plan for Chicago)
Yin and Yang, Night and Day, Tension and Release... THESE are truly the building blocks of what makes life grand. For real! Hunger is the best sauce. You dig? You don't know what you got until its gone. I am down for all of these concepts, and this opinion comes from stone-cold experiential knowledge. Therefore (and to wit!) I want FOUR seasons! Not just "hot and less hot" which are the seasons in places like Texas and Mississippi. Or "mild and less mild" as it is still in places like northern California. Or cold all year 'round like it is in...well...outer space?
I want Hot, Cool and Crisp, Cold with Snow, then Mild. BAM! Gimme FOUR seasons, Y'all! Regardless of what you believe to be the cause, Global Climate Change is upon us and wreaking havoc. I want my four seasons back, Yo!
Dig:
SUMMER
There was a time in my youth when I absolutely ADORED this season! Of course, it meant a respite from the regimented system of education that was in place in the 1960s (What? DAYUM this Cat is old!) and a return to nearly 24/7 playtime with my friends and youthful creativity. But in my family's case, it also meant months-long visits to my mother's ancestral homeland in Cameron, Missouri. And what a magical land THAT was for a young boy in elementary school! Cameron had a "Bedford Falls" type downtown vibe with a Ben Franklin that was right next to a used comic book and "penny candy" store! GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY! Heaven on Earth for an eight-year-old! With a mere $1.00 I could purchase 25 or more used classic comics (Justice League Vol 10, One of the first three issues of The Amazing Spider Man, Action Comics Superman issues, The X-Men, early Batman, The Avengers, etc) and an entire BAG of pure sugar candy delights! (this is surely one of the reasons that my teeth went bad by middle school...along with of course, my Celtic Royal heritage...but that is a story for another time...) With these treasures, I could spend the afternoon at my great grandparent's house (I was privileged indeed to know these wonderful people from the 19th Century) horizontal on an old army cot in front of a box fan with an open window and no AC. The sound of cicadas, a hot breeze, a fan that sounded like Flash Gordon's rocket ship, unlimited sugar, and mind-bending amazing stories! 'Twas a utopia folks!
And there was a community swimming pool! WheeeeeeeDOGGIES! Talk about an adventure! I will leave out an in-depth discussion of the unexpected biology lessons that I gleaned by observing the older denizens of Cameron in the pool's Men's dressing room (Me to my younger brother: "WHOA! Andy, look at THAT! What the hell?") Suffice to say that swimming in the chlorinated cool water that reflected the sky blue-painted pool on a hot summer's day with mid-1960's music blasting from the cheap loudspeakers was enough to justify being born...and then some! And, of course, there was the trip to the pool's concession shack afterwards that specialized in yep, you guessed it: SUGAR!
But as I grew older, and the summers became hotter and more brutal, I realized that I simply wasn't built for extreme hot and humid. What was fun in my youth (even sunburn was kinda cool with the resulting peeling away of my near-translucent white bass-belly Celtic/Germanic skin and the Calamine and Bactine-perfumed remedies that followed) were no longer something that I cherished. As I aged, summer could still be fun, but not my favorite season.
I am grateful for summer however, because of how it sets up fall...or used to...
Yeah...that is NOT a face that was designed for hot and humid. Just sayin'...
AUTUMN
Fall has now become my favorite season! A bit of my life's story must be addressed to understand why this is now the case.
My parents divorced in 1968 and my mother married a high school sweetheart who was from Mississippi. Therefore, our yearly summer visit from our home in Woodridge, Illinois (a far north west suburb of Chicago, and itself a near-mythical and joyous place in my memory to grow up) to Cameron, Missouri became a one-year residence in that lovely state divided between first Cameron, and then Rockbridge, right outside of Columbia MO. During this time, we welcomed my beloved sister Jeanne to join the crew of myself and my two brothers Andy and Robbie. In many ways, this divided year was itself an adventure, albeit a traumatic one. By the summer of 1969, we landed in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. As a young person with a strong Chicago accent landing in the midst of the beginning of desegregation and bussing, this was quite-the-quite! Hurricane Camille and landing on the Moon greeted us as we became residents of the deep south. Along with a new understanding of what REAL summer heat was all about, I also learned that I needed to gain the linguistic superpower of imitating regional accents QUICKLY:
Me (with a heavy Chicago accent): "Hey fellas! It sure is hot here. Where can a guy get a pop?"
My New Friends (with heavy southern drawls): "Boy...we gonna have to KILL you son. What are you? Some kinda Yankee?"
Me (sporting an instantly acquired old-timey southern accent) "Hey Y'all! Don't mind ME! I's just jokin' with Y'all!"
Be that as it may...the fall season offered up a wonderful release from the DAWG days of summer in Mississippi. The air became crisp, and reminiscent of my youth in the deciduous land of Chi-Town. And as I've grown older and found my way back to Chicago where I now live with my wonderful bride-to-be Deborah, fall with its delightful promise of changing leaves, wood burning fire pits and chimneys, Halloween, and yes...even pumpkin spice has become very dear to me. I absolutely ADORE all things autumn. And I have come to realize that I feel this way not strictly because of nostalgia, but in reaction to summer.
Yin and Yang.
Tension and Release.
WINTER
Ah...and now we get to the heart of the matter. The crux of the biscuit if you will. Back in the days of my youth in Chicago-land, winters were EPIC! Some would say BRUTAL! Yes..."WINTER IS COMING!" This was something that was said with great dread from ancient times all the way up into the 1960s when I was living in the Land of Lincoln. And with a real truth to back it up. Winter was COLD in Chicago in the days of yore. SERIOUSLY cold! Sub-zero (Fahrenheit) COLD! and there was SNOW. LOTS and LOTS of snow! and it stayed around for MONTHS at a time!
The infamous Chicago blizzard of 1967. 19.8 inches of snow in a 24 hour period!
And man-oh-MAN! Snow and cold is real-deal FUN for kids. The stuff of childhood DREAMS! Winter was my childhood favorite time of year!
These snowflakes aren't ripe yet...
When my family left Chicago for Mississippi, winter with snow had been a given in my life. In the southand, snow was a rare and magical occurrence that almost never took place. Winter as I had known it was gone.
Yin with no yang...
For this reason, I became dreadfully and somewhat inorganically nostalgic for snow and cold and have missed it ever since. Even later in life when I resided in Wisconsin for 17 years (a land that KNOWS a thing or two about winter!) I still felt nostalgic about the cold and snow and welcomed it whenever it showed up with great gladness!
SPRING
And finally: springtime! the ultimate seasonal Yang to the Yin! A joyous time of renewal from time immemorial where the Earth wakes up from its long winter slumber to once again become fertile and prosperous! Indeed, so-much-so that it was the stuff of song, art, poetry, and prose! Consider the riotous inspiration for Stravinsky's spectacular Rite of Spring! (Talk about your Yin and Yang!) Or perhaps one of my all-time favorite compositions of ANY genre: Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring." WOW. I believe that Copland truly captured all the covenant and beauty of that grand season in old America:
I could have chosen a CSO version of this...but there is something about Lenny's tempos that just speak deeply to me...
ALL of this to say: with our current changing climate, we are beginning to lose our natural tension-and-release that made our world so musical. I adore and am very excited about modern pop, rock, funk, and hip-hop, but am DREADFULLY put off by and disappointed with any effort that drones on with only one texture (some minimalism excepted) As that great modern philosopher of soul James Brown once said "Gimme the BRIDGE!." A-Men.
As I mentioned, I have now returned to Chicago and life is grand indeed. HOWEVER...there is no longer a WINTER here in the Windy City. Yes, the "Hawk" still comes in from the lake where Deborah and I live ("The Hawk" is what the residents of Chicago have come to call that wind that screams in off of Lake Michigan and blasts right through any winter clothing going straight to your bones! COLD!!!) but consider our snowfall for winter 2023-24: 18.5 inches. That is more than a FOOT below normal. And here in Lincoln Square where Deborah and I live, it truly seemed like nothing at all. NO SNOW!!
Yin without Yang
Tension without Release
The King without a sword
The Land without a King
OH the Hugh Manitee!
Wassup Chicago? I thought you were supposed to be cold? Aren't you supposed to have massive snowfalls. Isn't Winter Coming? Hmmm...I guess not. Seems you are just no longer up to the task.
Too bad...
(Now let the reverse psychology meteorological shenanigans BEGIN!
You Dig?
Comments