Summer ebbs and suddenly it’s September. It’s the month when swimming pool owners notice that the pool is no longer filled with the neighbour’s kids, but with his leaves. It’s when the morning swim at the lake leaves you chilled for the whole day. It’s stocking up the firewood supply, which is sort of the human version of a squirrel gathering nuts.
September is the Labour Day Weekend. And further into the new month, it’s the Autumnal Equinox, which is technical talk for winter is coming. And later, the Jewish New Year celebration with Yom Kippur beginning on the 25th.
September is also known for these known or little-known calendar items:
September 3, 1970 — It’s hard to believe, but on this day a hailstone 17 1/2 inches in circumference landed in Coffeeville, Kansas. It weighed one and a half pounds. It landed on Egbert Hoganberryclanger, who didn’t feel well for some time after that encounter.
September 3, 1752 — This day never happened in England. In fact, the 10 days that followed never happened either. It was all because of the introduction of the Gregorian calendar. An adjustment in the calendar required dropping 11 days. This decision caused rioting, because people thought that the government was stealing 11 days out of their lives.
September 4, 1938 — London, England, fashion experts predicted that mouse-skin coats would become popular. They said each coat would require 400 mouse skins and that customers could save money by supplying their own mice. All together now, “Yuch!”
September 5, 1896 — The first beef steak was sold in Circle City, Alaska, at $48 a pound. With a coupon from the weekly food-store flyer, no doubt.
September 9, 1908 — Orville Wright (Wilburs’ brother) set a new aviation record by staying airborne for one hour and two minutes.
September 9, 1921 — The most intense rainfall in the continental U.S. occurred. A place called Thrall, Texas, had 38 inches (950 millimetres) of rain in 24 hours!
September 18, 1975 — More wet weather, but much closer to home. An intense low pressure system over Winnipeg brought enormous rainfalls to our province. Riding Mountain National Park received more rain in one day than any Manitoba location ever had: 217 millimetres (8 1/2 inches). Meanwhile, Dauphin had about 300 millimetres (12 inches) of rain over a two and a half day period.
September 19, 1930 — The strange baseball case of Flint Rhem. On this day, the starting pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals finally returned to the team after having been missing for two days. Flint had a great explanation. It seems that gangsters kidnapped him at gunpoint and forced him to drink enormous quantities of spirituous fermentae, aka,booze. As it turned out, the team needed his pitching skill so badly that he didn’t receive any punishment, proving again that sometimes there’s no justice.
September 19, 1768 — Paul Revere formed his musical group, The Raiders. No, sorry. Not that Paul Revere. This is about the fellow who made that midnight ride into American history. But this item isn’t about the ride. It’s about Paul’s merchandising prowess. It was on this date that he advertised his ability to make false teeth. People thought he was crazy and said, “Take a ride, Paul!”
September 20, 1986 — How’s this for football folly. The Witchita State Shockers had a 35-3 lead over their opponents early in the third quarter. But remember what Yogi said, “It’s not over ’til it’s over.”
At the end of the game, the Shockers had shocked everyone by losing 36-35. Stumbling and fumbling, they had blown the biggest lead ever in U.S. college football history — 32 points. Even worse, at the end of the year, the school’s football program was cancelled. Oops!