The first chilly morning of the Autumn season makes me reflect on all those summer days cruising (on foot) through the park to see who was playing ball. Remember the old folks used a term… “courting”? That term came from the days when one would sit in the courtyard of a southern home with an intended “sweetie”. Well, I guess the basketball court was a version of that.

We girls would go watch the boys we knew from school become men. Sweating themselves out of their shirts, pretending it wasn’t for our entertainment. There we were on the sidelines, pretending to ignore their developing physiques, as if we had nowhere else to sit.

There was that one summer when we were too cool for the swings but not ready for the baseball dugout.So there we sat. Aware of the line, and at the same time, unknowingly deciding what side we would be on come fall.

- Cynthia R. 

Intimations of Fall