October Surprise

Fall is my favorite season, even living in California, where the seasons have trouble distinguishing themselves from each other. It may be 90 degrees outside but I still have to check the calendar to make sure it’s not the middle of January.

October has always been my favorite month of the year. It is the heart of the autumn season. The trees still have leaves but are at their colorful best. Football, both college and professional, is in full swing. The baseball season is wrapping up with the playoffs and World Series. The horrible heat of summer has passed and has been replaced with moderate days and much cooler nights and all of a sudden, everything is pumpkin spice flavored. Damn you Dunkin Donuts. 

I have noticed how Halloween has taken over the months of September and October. It seems everything has a Halloween theme to it. On the Cooking Network, every other show is a monster bake-off. There is advertising for everything from costumes to candy. Nostalgia for all things spooky has popped up. There are ads for the newest Addams Family animated movie, an announcement of an upcoming Munsters movie and celebrities getting all made up for no reason, weeks before Halloween. This is what happens when one of the big mattress sales holidays, Columbus Day, is removed from the advertising calendar leaving marketing and advertising people time to overthink things. This is how we get actors dressing as food products to promote brand names. Disgusting and embarrassing for the actors.

All the Halloween media attention still does not slow down the behemoth of all advertising holidays from flexing its muscles, Christmas. It’s not blatant, but it’s there. Have you noticed on your television the number of high-end fragrance commercials, even during football games. There you go. Do you think those companies are running cologne and perfume ads because the football season is starting? Well, they might be, considering how the football players and their die-hard fans, who won’t change their underwear for superstitious reasons, might be a bit more fragrant. The fact is, these fragrance commercials are trying to get a head start on the Christmas season.

Another sign is advertisers trying to stretch “Black Friday,” the big shopping day after Thanksgiving, all the way to the beginning of October. There are “Early Black Friday” specials all over the place. All the electronic companies are introducing their latest updated products just in time for the Christmas shopping season. Clothing companies are running ads showing the latest fashions for the winter and even the car makers are getting into the spirit. How many ads do I have to see of brand new cars with large red bows on them. Really, how many of us in the real world can afford to buy their spouse a $60,000 car as a Christmas present, and why didn’t I marry one of them? Oops, did I say that out loud.

The  early “Christmas ads” are subtle. All of a sudden, car commercials show their vehicles driving through snow covered mountains. In other ads, the actors are dressed in sweaters and warm jackets. Advertisers at least have the good sense not to go full blown, Santa Claus, Jingle Bells, Christmas tree type ads until Halloween has passed but they are there. Why not? Most of the retail businesses in this country depend on the money they make during the Christmas season to survive for the year. One day the Christmas advertising season will start on January 1st. Maybe the retailers are hoping most people will not have sobered up from their New Year’s celebration to notice.

I have strayed off track. I am supposed to be talking about my favorite season, fall. It was a special time of the year when I was young. I lived in an area where burning leaves was a fall tradition.  The smell of that was a special memory. Where I live now, the smell of burning leaves means gathering all the important paperwork and pictures in the house and evacuating.

I also have fond memories of trick or treating, without my parents tagging along. A much different and safer time. I use to rake leaves and then jump into the pile, then have to rake them again so my dad wouldn’t get angry. I loved going to high school football games and getting loud and rowdy with my friends (In an appropriate way. Not like a Raiders game.) Another fond memory is going on several actual hayrides. Thought it might be a great way to meet girls, but they all had dates. Awkward much? Yes the temperatures were dropping but I have always liked cool weather. It’s like someone turned on the air conditioner and your wife, and most energy companies, aren’t screaming about how high the electric bill is as a result. 

Spring, Winter and Summer have their good points but autumn to me is the best season of all. Another good thing about the fall is I’m not required to wear a swimsuit and expose my less than desirable body to the neighborhood. That could be as scary as a family of monsters moving in next door. Please don’t tell the Addams I said that.

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