Impressions of Fall

Our Fall Film Festival is well underway, and so far it's been a great success. Success, by the way means that we watched the movies. This week's movie, The Brothers Grimm, is one of the most evocative Fall movies I've ever seen. It is significantly underrated and consistently poorly reviewed. Because it is so universally disliked, I approach each reviewing with a little bit of dread, afraid that this time I will see what was so terrible about it. While it is certainly not a perfect movie, I do enjoy it every time and find my original opinion intact. For me, the movie looks like a storybook. It reminds me somehow of an aged ViewMaster reel.

But Fall memories and feelings - while often related to childhood - are not all contained in movies. Several books also come to mind. One that has particular significance to me, and I don't exactly know why, is Family Grandstand. In truth, I cannot remember very much about this book. For example, I have no concept of the plot (I remember something about a local football stadium that could be viewed from the upstairs - hence the title. Oddly, I have never cared about sports, then or now), I can't remember the characters names and I can't even remember how many children there were in the family. So it is probably a false memory that I have, but somehow it is extremely strong. I guess the book left me with an impression of Fall and Fall reminds me of this impression.

Emily (my sister, if you don't know) has a blog in which she writes reviews of children's books, many of which are out of print. And her latest post was about this very book! If you want a more thorough discussion of this book, you have to read her post, which features a charming photo of the very same copy I read (for all I know, the only copy in existance). Although she did not mention anything about a seasonal connection to the book, I have to assume that there is something, because I was always very drawn to this book in the Fall. Perhaps our mom read it to us during a particularly nice Central Florida Fall.