September is here again and the promise of cooler weather and crisp clean air is here. It's been five years since we opened out doors at the Foxcroft store and we appreciate the way our neighbors have made us a part of their lives. September is always the month of change. In Latin September means seventh and used to be the seventh month in the Roman calendar before the reform in 153 BC. Seven is the luckiest of numbers and September is the beginning of the busy season for us in the wine trade. Parties and celebrations are just around the corner. People spend more time indoors and less time working in the yard. We're stocking up with lots of new releases and there's no shortage of great wine. September is a hopeful time but it's a melancholy time as well. We say goodbye to the Summer, the lazy days and fond memories. The world outside is alive right now. I think of Kurt Weill's famous "September Song", first introduced on Broadway in 1938, recorded by numerous singers and now an American Songbook classic. It captures the feeling of time moving on perfectly...

 

"When I was a young man courting the girls
I played me a waiting game
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
I'd let the old Earth make a couple of whirls
While I plied her with tears in lieu of pearls
And as time came around she came my way
As time came around, she came

When you meet with the young girls early in the Spring
You court them in song and rhyme
They answer with words and a clover ring
But if you could examine the goods they bring
They have little to offer but the songs they sing
And the plentiful waste of time of day
A plentiful waste of time


Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn't got time for the waiting game

Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I'll spend with you
These precious days I'll spend with you " 

 

 

 

 Here's Ian McCulloch's, lead singer for the great 80s band "Echo and the Bunnymen"  interpretation of the American Songbook Classic. When it was released I was too young to get it but now I do and I think he did it justice...