By Abe Villarreal
It's October, and I just ate a peppermint Christmas candy nougat. The kind that is roughly shaped like a rock but tastes chewy and soft. It's white with red stripes and a green Christmas tree shape in the center.
When you unwrap it, some stays on the wrapper, and each one feels like it has been shaped by the hands of whoever held it before you. It's October and I like skipping the candy corn for these Christmas nougats.
Seasonal things are always extra special. Like kites and campfires. They are always done and best enjoyed at certain times of the year. Some seasonal things can only be enjoyed for one or two months at a time before they are gone until the same time next year. These kinds of seasonal things are my favorite.
Songs in the supermarket. During the holiday season, these songs are the same as they were the year before. Rockin' around the Christmas tree is one that never grows old. Then there are those instrumental holiday jingles played from speaker systems in grocery aisles. You can only partially hear them, but somehow they stay stuck in the back of your head for the rest of the week. I like those too.
The most potent of seasonal traditions is the roasting of green chile. You can unfreeze it, cook it, stew it, and enjoy it all year long. It's only during that perfect time at the end of summer, when the days start getting a tad bit shorter, and the leaves are about to turn colors when it can be smelled as it's turning in a roaster outside of a hometown, family-run stand with a handwritten sign that says Green Chile Sold Here.
Some things have no comparison. Usually, those things happen during certain seasons of the year. Like sweaters and coffee flavors. Christmas lights and tamales. Vacations and barbeques. School buses and homecoming dances.
It's only once a year that my mom makes buñuelos with syrup made out of piloncillo. It's a season I look forward to for 12 months long. When the nights get shorter and the evenings cooler, I end up drinking more tea and eating more oatmeal cookies. The kind with the thin layer of white icing. These things don't taste the same during other times of the year.
When the days are longer, and the sun is up earlier, it's a time for picnics and outside lunches with co-workers. A season for stopping at national parks and historical markers on your way to family in neighboring states.
I know that every Spring I can look forward to music festivals and bicycle tours. Each summer, there are carnivals and county fairs. During Autumn are visits to corn mazes and pumpkin patches. Winter is a time for big family meals and new beginnings.
It's better that we get these things only once or twice a year. That we have to wait for time to pass, for what may seem like forever. Until the season arrives, and then we wonder how time flew by.
Baseball games and graduations. Soups and pies. Flowers and farmers markets. They are gone until they show up again, and then you remember why you missed them and how you enjoy them while they are here.
For now, I have my peppermint Christmas candy nougat. It won't be too long before I have to wait for them all over again.
Abe Villarreal writes about the traditions, people, and culture of America. He can be reached at abevillarreal@hotmail.com.