Autumnal Equinox

The autumnal equinox arrives at 11:09 PM ET tonight. An equinox happens twice a year when the sun crosses the plane of the equator. On that day, night and day have equal length. The beginning of spring is marked by the vernal equinox. Now, the sun is headed south for the winter. In the springtime, at the vernal equinox, the sun is headed north for the summer. It appears that our sun is a snowbird.

Also tonight, there is a full moon. It’s called a Harvest Moon. If your sky is clear, you might see what looks like a bright star near the Moon. It’s not a star, it’s the planet Jupiter. Jupiter is in opposition, meaning it is exactly opposite the sun as seen from Earth. Jupiter is closer to Earth now than it has been since 1963.

Tomorrow is the first full day of fall. But tomorrow’s temperature will be in the mid-90s. I took a walk through the neighborhood this evening. According to the NWS, it was 89° then and the heat index was 93°. And it felt like it.

In the hot evening, many residents were sitting on front porches or walking along the avenues. My memories of Fall, formed in high school days, was of football and cold evenings. And cigarettes. I was a regular smoker at 17. For years and years, lighting up a cigarette on a cold autumn night was a memory trigger that would take me back to high school Friday night football games – and from my house I could hear the high school football crowd cheering.

When I was a high school senior, I had the job of yearbook photographer, which got me into all the games, home and away, for free. It got me onto the sidelines where picture-taking was better. You could see me running along the sidelines during the game with a 4” x 5” Graphlex camera. Sometimes I used my 35 mm camera, but I preferred the Graphlex because it looked serious. It was the press camera of World War 2 and it looked like a press camera should look.   And its powerful flash would reach much farther onto the field than the electronic flash of the 35mm. Its flash attachment held 4 or 5 D-cells to power the flashbulb. It used a film negative as big as the average snapshot of the day. Its film carrier contained two negatives. To shoot a picture I inserted the film carrier into the back of the camera and pulled the light shield out of the film carrier so the negative could be exposed. After taking a picture, I inserted the light shield into the film carrier, pulled the film carrier out of the camera and flipped it over, inserted the film carrier back into the camera, then pulled the light shield out of the film carrier to expose the new negative. Then, I was ready to shoot a picture. Complicated and time-consuming. I loved it! And one more thing: nothing on the camera was automatic. I set the shutter speed, I set the exposure time. It didn’t even have a light meter. A good photographer was just supposed to know how to set those things.

I had a darkroom in my cellar where I often developed and printed pictures. The school didn’t like me using the Graphlex due to the cost of loading the negative carriers, so I bought 4” x 5” film and took the negative carriers to my cellar and loaded the film there. It had to be done in total darkness – no safelight for this film. To this day I remember standing in utter darkness, feeling along the edge of the negative for the little cutout that would tell me the film orientation – which side had the emulsion.

My best friend, Doug, was also a yearbook photographer. Doug and I usually showed up at events together. I would try to have the Graphlex and he would have a 35 mm. I recall one amazing shot – or perhaps I should say, two amazing shots. We were at a basketball game. We were on opposite sides of the court, kneeling along the sidelines to capture a picture of a player making a layup. By happenstance, our cameras were aimed toward each other. As the player went up for the layout, we each snapped our shot. When I printed my picture I was astounded to see Doug’s flash going off in my photo. His flash was electronic; it had a duration of about one millisecond –a thousandth of a second. I couldn’t tell you now what shutter speed I used on the Graphlex, but certainly it was a tiny fraction of a second. And of course, Doug’s photo showed my flash going off. We had snapped our photos at virtually the same instant.

Lots of memories and lots of nostalgic feelings were evoked on those cold, autumn football evenings when I lit up a smoke. But those nostalgic feelings may not be coming back to me any longer. The world has changed, and I’ve changed. I no longer smoke. And the cold autumn evenings – they’ve become too hot to enjoy even a short walk around the ‘hood.