The "Windows Down" test.

[Joe Paris]

In Acadiana (that Cajun part of south Louisiana), it's usually mid-September before the temperature cools down enough to pass "The Windows Down Test."

That's when passengers in a vehicle are actually comfortable with the windows DOWN while traveling.

I've lived long enough to recall when having the windows down was a given (no air conditioning in cars except for a very few), and from around Mother's Day until about a fortnight after Labor Day, it was hot going anywhere at any time.

As summer wound down, we longed for mid-September to come quickly, because we knew the breeze pouring through the windows would finally be cool enough to bring a whisper of fall and daydreams of gumbo weather.

This annual "coming of the cool breezes" sent us into a frenzy of storytelling, as we eagerly told each other all the cooler-weather adventures we had in mind. Those mid-Septembers were my first experiences of how important "pre" stories are : those "Stories of Anticipating our Adventures" that capture our imaginations every bit as much as the more traditional stories about things that have already happened.

So it is, still. The first cool breezes of the fall bring with them the urge to tell what GOING to happen in the next few months leading up to the holidays. Their coming signals that we've made it through another long, hot summer in Acadiana, and have many fine stories to look forward to "living out" as fall tumbles into our lives . #