Late afternoon, early September. Fall is about to announce itself but hasn’t yet found the courage. I’m sitting in a second-floor window well in a very old house contemplating an outside scene that’s about to find its way to a different place. It’ll happen slowly at first, as a reaction to the heat of August, then pick up speed in a burst of wild tints and later a patchwork of browns and tans.
The season ahead means many different things to different people. Some see it as the last—and best—days at the Shore, a time to contemplate low light angles on a finally quiet beach. Others see it as the perfect setting for early-morning runs along the Radnor Trail past the sculptures at the Wayne Art Center, or the ideal setting for walking off a weekend brunch on Malvern’s King Street.
Many also see it as the beginning of an extraordinarily active time of the year. They hear the great live music in the distance—outdoors on crisp nights at Rose Tree Park in Media, or at hip spots like Wayne’s 118 North and the Ardmore Music Hall. They can’t wait to be transported somewhere else by fall offerings at places like People’s Light, Media Theatre, SALT Performing Arts, Hedgerow Theatre and the Resident Theatre Company. Others celebrate the season by screaming their lungs out on Saturday afternoons at West Chester University’s John A. Farrell Stadium or Villanova Stadium. Tailgates happen, weather be damned.
Thanks to returning college students and vacationers alike, autumn is a time of rebirth for the Main Line and western suburbs. And as Main Line Today’s new publisher, I get
a spectacular sense of all that’s out there in our neighborhoods just waiting to be experienced. All the grand views, intimate spots, wonderful tastes, simple-to-extravagant pleasures and deep history of the area. And this is the perfect time of the year to get out and savor it all—or, at least, all that you can.
We measure the moments of our lives by the things we do, the people we meet and the places we go. In this special season of transformation, I urge you to get out and enjoy everything our area has to offer with friends, family and maybe even a new acquaintance or two.
And there’s always the option to experience it on your own—like me in that window well, watching the light slip away and wondering how I got so lucky.
