Fall Is Coming...

It seems that this year the fall has arrived earlier than calendars said. But for this, it is not necessary to check the day or the month, or to study the sun's course, or the fluctuations of the barometer. No. To make sure it is fall already, all we have to do is take a look at Victory Promenade. For any change of seasons, Bucharest dwellers have the most accurate indicator, which is also the most pleasant and least costly: this weird street, which, like a gallant woman, is never wrong about her elegant clothes and always puts on in time the adequate fabrics and colors, to be in tune with the whims of our sky. Swallows may leave, nut-tree leaves may fall down on the hoarfrost, now covering vineyards. But, as far as Bucharest dwellers are concerned, all these symptoms do not mean the beginning of the fall. As long as there are still straw hats and low-cut blouses in Victory Promenade, for Bucharest dwellers summer is still here. And we must confess that our elegant troteusses[1] almost always delay, with their summer clothes, the arrival of this dreamy season, expected so impatiently by singers, lovers, and maybe even by those who pack to go to Nice, Menton, or other hospital-cities. But this time Victory Promenade changed its countenance unexpectedly. For a few days now, we have not had any blue sky, white dresses, or café terraces. For a few days now we have only had heavy rain drops, monotonously rapping on windows and breaking on the sidewalk. It rains like in late fall. And it is only early fall…. Summer theaters are beginning to put off their shows. Gardens are closing. Those who left are coming back, and the same race to I-don't-know-where begins at the Post Office Palace and ends at the Royal Palace!(1909)
[1] Ladies who pass by in a lively sprint.


by Ion Minulescu (1881-1944)