Welcome to the best month. Apologies to the non-believers, we'll be praying for you.
In poll after poll and article after article I perused online during my usual almost 10 minutes of weekly research, October was consistently either #1 or #2. The odd example of a lower rating were consistently from places with no trees.
Having no trees in October would be like having no birthday cake at a birthday party. Or a Kavannah Kegger with no keg.
Of course, I didn't need those long research minutes to know October is the best. I've been living it the better part of...well, a lot of...years. I was born in October, so there's a clue for you.
October birthdays are a testament to those cold January and February nights when folks were just trying to get warm and things got toasty. I might have been born in Tennessee, but according to my parents and grands, I got my start on a particularly cold January night when my parents were trying to get warm in a little cabin on my great-grandparents hardscrabble farm up in Owen County.
That's Kentucky bred for all you horse players, always worth a bet.
Now I'm no prima donna, October isn't the best month just because of my birthday. That's below number #5 on the 10 reasons October rules. October could almost take the prize on leaves and Halloween alone.
October is the most colorful month in the hills. Granted, April and May get pretty colorful, but we are tricked by the fact the color is popping up on neutrals. Anything would look colorful when you're spattering it on a gray background.
This month starts with everything around us some shade of green and ends with everything around us some shade of yellow or orange or red or purple or green. It's the harvest season and who can really count the colors of autumn?
October is the month of burning off the garden and bonfires. The month of jackolanterns and spooks. The month summer comes to a screeching halt and winter tiptoes into the picture. October is a month to get outside.
This is the month of the best holiday, Halloween, a day for all Americans free of religious and patriotic overtones. It's a day of giving and receiving without expectation. A day to celebrate the full circle of life with emphasis on the mysterious parts. A day anyone can be truly anything they want without apology or condemnation.
October used to be a big month in Elkhorn City. It's the month of whitewater season, a season so great the U.S.A.C.E. has decided to extend it into November. You know a month is great when the army wants to make it longer.
But our mayor, city council and police chief are saving us from tourism and it appears the Corps didn't get their input on the extended season. They just wish all those money dropping thrill seekers would stay away.
The town of Haysi in Virginia is loving October with renewed vigor thanks to the folks we'll re-elect in November. Our businesses don't need that money, anyway.
I encourage you to make the most of October! Forget our inhospitable city hall and spend a weekend in the Breaks. Just watch out for the road checks, you might want to hide that kayak in the trunk.