Autumn Almanac

And so we move into the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, or more likely these days storms and bankruptcies. Back in my youth, September was the time when boys moved on from playing cricket to football and the youth of the village began the long task of collecting material for the big bonfire in the rec on Nov 5th, more of that another time, it was also the time when the great game of conkers was played with much enthusiasim and bruised knuckles and the annual ritual of scrumping took place with the children of the village looting the apple orchards and the farmers trying to stop them. The children often ended up with a good collection of loot and often a bad case of stomach ache when consuming too much of it.

Nowadays of course, you would be hard pressed to find an orchard to scrump from and if you were caught would probably be liable for an ASBO or community service. Not that one would defend such illegal practices of course, but probably a bit of scrumping was a lot less harmful then some of the things that young persons are alleged to get up to these days and it certainly sharpened up some peoples wits and athletic abilities.