The sound of crickets reminds me of late summer in childhood. Right before we had to go back to school, play became more important because we knew there was an end in sight. We would stay out in the dusk till the last possible moment, but always the cricket's chirp was a reminder that it was late summer, and school was just days away. My mother would be in the steamy kitchen canning peaches or other summer fruits, and somehow we got away with staying out late playing tag with the neighborhood children. We really wouldn't have time to spend with them freely again until the next summer, and by then a whole year at school would have changed us all.
Since today's cricket is chirping in the morning... it brings to mind my red plaid lunch box, crisp cool mornings of the first school days, apprehension about the new school year to come. As E B White says in Charlotte's Web, for adults the crickets song is a reminder that summer is over and gone. The vegetables are ripe, the annual plants looking a little worse for wear...time to get down to business.
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