Letters for George: November

Dear George,

November is such a momentous month. The end of the warm season, the start of the cold, a period of major transition. As a kid on the Menominee River, our grass had stopped growing by November, and my irksome lawn-mowing task came to its end. My dad’s birthday was on November 5th, but he said that birthdays were for kids and not to get him a present. (I did anyway, using most of my 25 cent allowance.) We hauled the green rowboat out of the river and stored it upside down on two wooden horses near the birch grove. My dad and I installed the insulated panels in our high ceilinged living room, and we cleaned the fallen oak leaves out of the gutters on our roof. My mother got our winter clothes out: coats, knit caps, scarves, mittens, corduroy trousers, warm socks, rubber boots. Steven and I had endless acorn fights on the front lawn, dodging behind the trees.

We got our first big snowfall of the year in November though the river hadn’t yet frozen over. If we were lucky we might get two or three snow days off from school since Riverside Boulevard with its three or four families had lowest priority for the county’s plow trucks. At my grandfather’s insistence, I joined the Washington Grade School basketball team in the November of my sixth grade year, beginning an obsession with basketball that lasted for a decade or more. Steve and I set up a portable desk lamp outside the garage so we could practice at night, even when the driveway was coated with ice.

Sixth graders at Washington School did a Thanksgiving play for the P.T.A., and my mother made a big Thanksgiving dinner for the family: turkey and stuffing, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, and Schaum Torte for dessert. The biggest local event of the year occurred in late November: the M&M football game between the Menominee Maroons and the Marinette Marines, the oldest public high school rivalry in the country. As teens we were cautioned not to drive across the river to Marinette during M&M week because they’d vandalize our cars or worse.

When I turned sixteen the fathers in my parents’ group took their oldest sons, including Frank St. Peter, Skipper Burke, Bill Caley, and myself, to Jean Worth’s Cedar River camp during deer hunting season. It was an exciting rite of passage, though nobody spotted a deer. My November memories after turning eighteen and leaving Menominee are blurrier because I became less in touch with nature and the out of doors. However, I have a vivid recollection of newlyweds Katja and I voting in Ann Arbor for John F. Kennedy in our first election in November 1960. Now, of course, another huge presidential election is imminent. Here are a few other November items of interest.

Love,

Dave

NOVEMBER QUOTES:

"November always seemed to me the Norway of the year.” (Emily Dickinson)

“It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.” (Maggie Stiefvater)

“And we will serenade and make love to the passion of November!” (Avijeet Das)

“The house was very quiet, and the fog—we are in November now—pressed against the windows like an excluded ghost.” (E.M. Forster)

“November at its best - with a sort of delightful menace in the air.” (Anne Bosworth Greene)

“Yes. Not winter, not fall. I’ve always liked November in Corot country.” (André Aciman)

"The gloomy months of November, when the people of England hang and drown themselves.” (Joseph Addison)

“Welcome sweet November, the season of senses and my favorite month of all.” (Gregory F. Lenz) (4, 6)

NOVEMBER WEATHER IN SELECTED PLACES:

Menominee, MI: ave. hi, 41; ave low, 26; 2.7 in. rain; 5.3 in. snow; 37% sunny

Seattle, WA: ave. hi, 51; ave low, 39; 5.4 in. rain; 1.5 in. snow; 22% sunny

Cincinnati, OH: ave. hi, 53; ave low, 35; 3.7 in. rain; 2.0 in. snow; 35% sunny

Princeton, NJ: ave. hi, 53; ave low, 35; 3.8 in. rain; 1.0 in. snow; 50% sunny

New York, NY: ave. hi, 54; ave low, 40; 3.9 in. rain; 1.0 in. snow; 52% sunny

Sacramento, CA: ave. hi, 64; ave low, 43; 2.5 in. rain; 0.0 in. snow; 65% sunny

Santa Cruz, CA: ave. hi, 65; ave low, 42; 4.5 in. rain; 0.0 in. snow; 65% sunny

New Orleans LA: ave. hi, 71; ave low, 51; 4.8 in. rain; 0.0 in. snow; 53% sunny

(3)

NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS

Some of my favorite people born in November include: Winston Churchill (11/30/1874); Rene Magritte (11/21/1898); Roy Rogers (11/5/1911); Hedy Lamarr (11/9/1914); Robert F. Kennedy (11/20/25); Grace Kelly (11/12/29); Joe Biden (11/20/42); Billie Jean King (11/22/43); Goldie Hawn (11/21/45); Mandy Patinkin (11/30/52); Howie Mandel 11/29/55); Scarlet Johannson (11/22/64) (13)

CURIOUS NOVEMBER FACTS:

Anglo-Saxons called November “Blotmonath” (“Blood month”) after the blood of slaughtered animals. (9)

In Finland November is called “marraskuu”, meaning “month of the dead.” (10)

November is called “ngeyeNkanga” in Xhosa, meaning “month of the small yellow daisies”. (10)

November’s full Moon is traditionally called the Beaver Moon. In the Colonial Era, this was the month in which to set one’s beaver traps before the swamps froze over to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. (1)

More serial killers have been born in November than any other month. (2)

Shakespeare did not mention the month of November in any of his 37 plays and 154 sonnets. (9)

More Spaniards tweet “Te Amo” (“I love you”) in November than in any other month. (9)

In recent years November has been renamed “Movember”, a time when men grow mustaches for charitable causes. (12)

If you were born in the middle of November there’s a good chance you were conceived on Valentine’s Day. (12)

Plumbers receive more calls the day after Thanksgiving than any other day of the year. (5)

SOURCES:

(1) almanac.com, “The Month of November 2020”;

(2) cashkaro.com, “7 Interesting Facts About November…”;

(3) citydata.com, “Menominee MI”, etc.;

(4) egreenway.com, “November”;

(5) good housekeeping.com, “10 Fascinating Facts About November Babies”;