Readers Who Write

Send us your copy So you say you want to write? Go for it. Send us 500 or so words of scintillating copy. Make it funny. Make it poignant. Make it count. Make it any way you want. Just don’t cuss. Don’t be boring. And have a point. If we like it, we’ll run it. Email submissions to community@rv-times.com. Put “Readers Who Write” in the subject line, and tell us the city where you live.

I was blessed to have grown up in one of the most romantic cities in the world. If you think I’m talking about Paris, you’re close — but wrong.

Of course, if you know me, you know I’m talking about Montreal. I find it interesting that my hometown ranks up there with the City of Lights (La Ville Lumière). Must be a French thing! What makes Montreal so special, you ask? Obviously it’s being my city of birth. Also, Montreal has spectacular seasons, each with a persona of its own.

Winter in Montreal can be magical. Kids greet winter with anticipation of snowy days sliding down hills on homemade (cardboard) toboggans. But there were dangers too. Kids playing on — or in — large snow banks had to stay alert for city snow removal convoys. Kids and snowblowers don’t play well together. It gets so cold, spit freezes solid before hitting the ground. A sudden blizzard can steal your sense of direction, for hours.

On the other hand, there is nothing more spectacular than the sight of twinkling Christmas lights glowing during a light evening snow flurry. The most anticipated thing about a Canadian winter is springtime. When you see your first robin redbreast pecking away at a thawing tundra, you know the sights, smells and warmth of spring are just around the corner.

The Canada geese, flying in their high altitude “V” formation, can be heard honking in unison as they finally arrive back home. The most significant sign that spring has sprung is the melting of the last remnants of snow, making way for the invasion of flower and tree buds. Then there is the awakening of those dormant lawns that haven’t seen much sun since the first snow.

For me, summer is a stealthy season. One day you are commenting on the sprouting apple or cherry blossoms, and the next thing you know, the flowers have been replaced with young and plentiful fruit. You know it’s summer when the kids are out of school (for 2½ months) and can be seen hanging out, everywhere. The humidity is almost unbearable, sunburns are plentiful, and it’s a smorgasbord fiesta for the mosquitoes and black flies.

Having my birthday in August, as I blew out the candles, my attention was not focused on the cake or the celebration. Instead, my birthday, to me, was a signal of what is yet to come — the end of summer vacation and the beginning of the fall season. Those noisy geese who honked their arrival last spring are now honking their goodbyes as they head south to their winter feeding grounds.

Autumn is my favorite season of them all, and for good reason. The humidity succumbs to shorter days. The sun sets earlier every day. These cooler temps promote a chain reaction of events, the most spectacular being the explosion of colors throughout the trees.

The leaves change colors due to the autumn change in daytime sunlight hours and lower nighttime temps. This causes chlorophyll to start breaking down, allowing the trees other pigments to become visible.

Flying over any forest in the fall season will present to you what I like to call “God’s Monet,” for as far as the eyes can see. With these fall season changes happening all around us, everyone is affected by the sensory overload. Maybe that is the source of the holiday spirit that warms us on the inside, even though it’s getting colder on the outside.

We become a more generous and caring society from Halloween through Thanksgiving and Christmas, too. With New Year’s comes the realization that winter is only half over. It will be months before we see those robin redbreast pecking away at the thawing tundra.

Season’s greetings to all.

So you say you want to write?

Go for it.

Send us 500 or so words of scintillating copy. Make it funny. Make it poignant. Make it count. Make it any way you want.

Just don’t cuss. Don’t be boring. And have a point.

If we like it, we’ll run it.

Email submissions to community@rv-times.com. Put “Readers Who Write” in the subject line, and tell us the city where you live.