Caps for Sale

The swap from summer to fall - my favorite season - always puts a few things in my mind. Sure there's the obvious sudden urge for apple picking, and cider doughnuts, and all things pumpkin flavored. But there's also this color pallet change that I really adore and look forward to - browns, navy's, creamy tomato reds and mustards. In Baltimore, the white shirts and khakis are finally put away and the neighborhood sorority gals finally, begrudingly put their pants back on.
Knitwear and tweeds and fantastic scarves of all colors come out and I feel like I'm home in NH, except without proper doughnuts, and without the expectation for snow.
Every year around this time, I also start thinking about this children's book I love - Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. Now that I think about it, perhaps the association I have between this book and this season has more to do with the upswing in craft fairs we do, and the similarity to the hat peddler's career. A man walks the countryside selling hats (you know, like a craft fair vendor if craft fairs didn't exist), which he carries all on top of his head (which sounds equally or more convenient than attempting to fit them all in our Toyota Corolla) and has to watch out for monkey's sabotaging his business plan with their unpredictable antics (In this part of the allegory... I might also be the monkeys, I haven't thought this through).
In any case, it's a great book, and I truly wish this was still how we purchased hats. I always wanted a red one from the top of the pile, myself.
Stay warm and if pumpkin flavoring is an option, remember your autumnal duty to choose it.