Change is in the air.

Is there a breeze stirring? What does your nose tell you? Is it the first hint of autumn, creeping in step by furtive step whenever your head is turned, as in that old game of “Statues”? 

 

I am grateful not to have pollen allergies at this time of year and hope those who do are finding relief in some form. No, no pollen allergies, but I wonder if there is a fall equivalent to spring fever. For years the Artist and I habitually took September vacations – once to France, more often to Ontario or Michigan Upper Peninsula or over to the Lake Huron shore. So these days when I see birds lined up on the electric lines, I am reminded of a line from the refrain of an old Anne Murray song: “And if I could/you know that I would/fly away with you.” But not really. Not fly, anyway….

 

The good news, though, is that my former Arizona ghost town hiking partner, now living back in Michigan, is coming for a visit soon and bringing her dog, Sunny’s best puppy bud. Sunny Juliet and Yogi will pick up right where they left off, and so will Therese and I, and now that it’s September, “locals’ summer,” I’ll take Sunday and Monday off and play tourist with my company. Well, maybe not “tourist,” exactly, but there will be long walks and lounging around, and aren’t those the best parts of a Michigan vacation?

 

Our June visit

People discovering my bookstore for the first time keep asking me how late into the season I’ll stay open, and I tell them, “Right on through the year.” My work weeks will be shorter, and eventually days will shrink, too, but the winter plan, beginning in November, is Wednesday through Saturday, 11-3, weather and roads permitting, just like last year. Until then, Tuesday through Saturday is the bookstore week.

 

You saw my famous visitor from Illinois in last week’s post, and today’s featured bookstore guest is the rare books curator from MSU, discovering Dog Ears for the first time with friends. The book he chose to hold for his photo isn’t one he purchased but one he was attracted to by its title. I think he has done very well himself for his somewhat-over-30 years. As for me, I must say it feels good to be discovered.

Tad Boehmer from East Lansing

Between customers, I’ve been rearranging bookstore categories. The “books on books”/literature section is newly organized, purged of short stories, the latter acquiring a bookcase all their own, displacing in turn the Pearl Buck novels, which are now housed in fiction (as are Gene Stratton-Porter novels). Phew! 

Books on Books (on Books!)

With so many acquisitions of “new” old books lately, it’s hard to select among them for a sample, but I’ll share a few illustrations from The Traverse Region, published in 1884, an intriguing folio that desperately needs rebinding but contains all its pages and maps. Leelanau County looks familiar, even with different spelling, but would you recognize Northport from these illustrations?

Wednesday afternoon I stopped at the Happy Hour after bookstore closing, had a draft at the bar, and took home a couple orders of the famous “bar chicken” to share with a friend. She brought pumpkin muffins and wine, and we visited outdoors over our meal, chatting about our lives and lives of friends and family, until the temperature told us to say good-night. 

 

The season is changing. Lives are changing. Change is nothing new but the eternal way of the world. We get so wrapped up in our daily concerns that it can seem as if they will go on forever, but change is always in the air. Always.