After blogging about fall and sharing some autumn-y poems, our pre-fall or early fall or whatever it was is over, and we are back up to 96 degrees. When I was small We generally came back to the midwest to visit the relatives in August or September, and my grandfather would tell me about Injun Summer. We have a print of this old Chicago Trib article which has hung in our house for years. It's not p.c. but I don't think it's bigoted, either. Just... quaint.
And then, of course, I had the Injun Summer tale itself, complete with the correct illustrations, which for years and years the Chicago Trib reprinted every fall. This year, we had cool, crisp weather for weeks, and then over the weekend temperatures climbed to over 80 sunny degrees.
As it says in Genesis, the eighth chapter, "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. "
And Injun summer, too, I guess:
John T. McCutcheon
Chicago Tribune
September 30, 1907
Yep, sonny this is sure enough Injun summer. Don't know what that is, I reckon, do you? Well, that's when all the homesick Injuns come back to play; You know, a long time ago, long afore yer granddaddy was born even, there used to be heaps of Injuns around here—thousands—millions, I reckon, far as that's concerned. Reg'lar sure 'nough Injuns—none o' yer cigar store Injuns, not much. They wuz all around here—right here where you're standin'.
Don't be skeered—hain't none around here now, leastways no live ones. They been gone this many a year.
They all went away and died, so they ain't no more left.
But every year, 'long about now, they all come back, leastways their sperrits do. They're here now. You can see 'em off across the fields. Look real hard. See that kind o' hazy misty look out yonder? Well, them's Injuns—Injun sperrits marchin' along an' dancin' in the sunlight. That's what makes that kind o' haze that's everywhere—it's jest the sperrits of the Injuns all come back. They're all around us now.
See off yonder; see them tepees? They kind o' look like corn shocks from here, but them's Injun tents, sure as you're a foot high. See 'em now? Sure, I knowed you could. Smell that smoky sort o' smell in the air? That's the campfires a-burnin' and their pipes a-goin'.
Lots o' people say it's just leaves burnin', but it ain't. It's the campfires, an' th' Injuns are hoppin' 'round 'em t'beat the old Harry.
You jest come out here tonight when the moon is hangin' over the hill off yonder an' the harvest fields is all swimmin' in the moonlight, an' you can see the Injuns and the tepees jest as plain as kin be. You can, eh? I knowed you would after a little while.
Jever notice how the leaves turn red 'bout this time o' year? That's jest another sign o' redskins. That's when an old Injun sperrit gits tired dancin' an' goes up an' squats on a leaf t'rest. Why I kin hear 'em rustlin' an' whisper in' an' creepin' 'round among the leaves all the time; an' ever' once'n a while a leaf gives way under some fat old Injun ghost and comes floatin' down to the ground. See—here's one now. See how red it is? That's the war paint rubbed off'n an Injun ghost, sure's you're born.
Purty soon all the Injuns'll go marchin' away agin, back to the happy huntin' ground, but next year you'll see 'em troopin' back—th' sky jest hazy with 'em and their campfires smolderin' away jest like they are now.
There's another poem about Indian Summer posted here.
When I inherited The Rattery, one of the millions of interesting little things with it was a shirtbox absolutely jam-packed with newspaper clippings and political cartoons my grandfather apparently couldn't find room for in his scrapbooks. They were largely from the thirties and forties. There are quite a few scathing mockeries of FDR and the New Deal, for example, many of them by John T. McCutcheon, editorial cartoonist and Pulitzer Prize winner from the Chicago Tribune, and the illustrator and writer of the Injun Summer art work and story posted above. We've posted a handful of his political cartoons. If you're interested, just type McCutcheon into one of the search boxes here, either at the top left or in the left sidebar. Pin It
