Blog 3580 – 08.25.2025

Autumn Color Show

Some of my fondest boyhood memories growing up in southeast Tennessee are of the autumn leaves on display. Chattanooga is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains and ridges with mostly hardwood trees that turn in early fall to glorious shades of red, gold, and orange. This flaming display attracts tourists from all around the country and is indeed a sight to behold.

I have now lived in southeast Texas the greater part of my almost seventy-five years and though it has its own natural beauty, autumn color is not one of them. In Houston the leaves usually just turn brown and fall off the trees between Christmas and Valentine’s Day and then the new green leaves start to appear by the end of February, early March.

Late August here and all the way to Halloween is usually a scorcher while I recall that in Chattanooga shortly after school started the evenings were cool enough to wear a sweater. Sweater weather in Houston, if it comes at all, is usually brief, a couple of weeks at the most, and is usually associated with those last brown leaves falling off the trees.

I miss that time of the year when the trees put on their party dresses. I wrote a poem about it while working up north some years ago. I hope you enjoying it on this hot summer day in late August.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White