Dear George,
It’s hard to
believe, but another September is almost here. All of these months are rich in meanings, but September is
certainly one of the best. Perhaps it’s most important because it’s always the beginning of the school
year. But there’s lots of other
stuff too. When I was a kid, we’d
go with my dad to the union Labor Day picnics in Menominee County to help with
his political campaigning for prosecuting attorney. As the weather got cooler, our summer swimming season would
come to an end, and we’d begin toasting marshmallows in our outdoor
fireplace. The squirrels would be
busy gathering acorns from our front lawn, milkweed pods would release their
fluffy innards, and the maples and oaks would be turning to their brilliant
reds and yellows. We had stored
dried cattails in the garage all summer long, and now we’d douse them in kerosene,
set them on fire, and race in circles around the driveway. Best of all, the Menominee and
Marinette High School football seasons would start with all their accompanying
excitement.
A lot of
famous people have been born in September. Just to name a few, Adam West
(TV Batman), Twiggy, Rocky Marciano, Trisha Yearwood, Mama Cass Elliott, Jimmy
Fallon, and Joe Morgan of the Cincinnati Reds. Closer to home, our son
J’s entire family was born in September: our daughter-in-law K on Sept. 15
(Independence Day throughout Central America), our granddaughter V on Sept. 16
(Grito de Dolores, Mexico’s Independence Day), J himself on Sept. 19
(International Talk Like a Pirate Day), and our grandson L on Sept. 30 (Martyrs
Memorial Day in China). September
is practically a nonstop birthday party in their NOLA household. For us
oldies, National Grandparents’ Day is on the first Sunday after Labor Day, and
the Japanese celebrate Respect for the Aged Day on the third Monday of
September.
I think one
could plot out one’s entire life course just by listing personal events in the
month of September. Here are some memorable Septembers that come to mind
for me:
- Sept. 1942: I started kindergarten at Boswell
School in Menominee’s west end. The main thing I remember is being
petrified.
- Sept. 1948.
My sixth grade teacher, Miss Guimond, appointed me Captain of the
Safety Patrol. That meant
that I had to stand guard at the street corner over the lunch hour while
the rest of the boys were playing football (actually with my football that
I brought to school each day).
- Sept. 1949: I began seventh grade at
Menominee High. Going from being a big shot sixth-grader to a puny
seventh-grader was petrifying.
- Sept. 1953: I was elected president of the junior
class at M.H.S. That’s only
because everyone thought it was such a nerdy thing to do.
- Sept. 1955: I started my freshman year at
Antioch College in Yellow Springs. I won’t say I was naïve, but,
when my new classmates started talking about “socialism”, I thought they
were referring to some type of social disease like syphilis or
gonorrhea. I was really
confused.
- Sept. 1957: I moved to New York City on an
Antioch coop job and, after a single visit to Times Square, I decided New
York was the only place I was ever going to live.
- Sept. 1958: My steady girlfriend Katja W. left
for a year abroad in France and Vienna, a painful and perilous
separation.
- Sept. 1960: Married for one week, Katja and I
moved to Ann Arbor after Labor Day to begin graduate school. Though
we were initially snobs about the Big Ten, it only took one game for us to
become devoted U.M. football fans.
- Sept. 1965:
As a teaching fellow I had my first experience of teaching
discussion sections of a large social psychology class. Consumed with anxiety, I felt like
I was having an out-of-body experience.
- Sept. 1966: I taught my first class in my new
faculty job in Cincinnati and immediately came down with a stress-related
fever blister (which was to recur annually every September for the next 43
years).
- Sept. 1969: Our son J was born on the
nineteenth. Back home from the hospital, we’d tiptoe into his room
every night because we couldn’t tell if he were breathing from next door.
- Sept. 1978: I began my first academic year
as a new full professor. I came down with double pneumonia on the
first day of classes and spent the next three weeks in the hospital.
- Sept. 1984: Katja began graduate study in the
M.S.W. program at the university, switching from adjunct teaching in the
French department to a better paying career because of imminent college
expenses.
- Sept. 1987: We drove J to New York City to begin
his freshman year of college.
After dropping him off, I immediately became deathly ill and was
confined to bed for the next three days.
- Sept. 2006: I began a two-year term as
Acting Head of the Sociology Department, a job I’d always dreaded but
which proved surprisingly tolerable.
- Sept. 2008: Our sweet grandchildren were
born, V in NOLA, L in China.
- Sept. 2009: I began my last academic
quarter of teaching social psychology before retiring at the end of
the year.
- Sept. 2013: I started taking OLLI classes for
people over 50 at the university.
I thought I would hate being back in the classroom, but it was
actually kind of pleasant to be a student again.
Now that I’ve
made my list, it looks like September has been a stressful month for me. But that’s just because it’s the time
of the year for new beginnings. I
don’t know what this September holds in store. We’ll find out as we go along.
Love,
Dave