I wrote last week of September’s breeze being cooler and the leaves beginning to change colors forty-five years ago. In this year, there are mornings when the temperature is cooler, but not always. There is also no doubt that the leaves are changing. The tides wax and wane and some months bring changes that can be seen and felt.

In the last week, I have begun to see big trucks and wagons carrying peanuts to the buying points and it won’t be long until every field has been dug and every goober picked. Good.

Also, cotton has opened in many fields, from bottom to top, and taking the leaves off so the picking can be clean is the next step.  As I say every Sunday, farmers be careful. Those are powerful machines and I want you to end the harvest season with just as many hands as you began it with.

The weather seems to be perfect for harvesting; dry and hot. I had hoped for another rain to finish making some of the dryland crops, but it may be too late for that. I’d rather have this sort of weather than the kind we had last October!

September also means that the pecan groves are being prepared for harvesting. As I look at the Hurricane Michael-affected groves, it looks like the pecan crop might be “hit or miss.”

For football fans September brings excitement every weekend. High school teams and bands are busy on Friday nights, college fans have all day Saturday to enjoy game after game, and, if the pro game is your cup of tea, Sundays, from noon to evening, are full.

As a Dawg fan, I’m interested in the upcoming weekend, particularly. Former Bainbridge Bearcat, Kirby Smart, has his Georgia football squad taking on one of the nation’s premier programs. Notre Dame comes to town and, even though it’s Tuesday as I write, Athens has already begun to shake, rattle, and roll.

Most Georgia fans don’t call him Coach. It’s simply Kirby. It’s amazing what Smart has done with the Bulldog program and many people remember Kirby. Just a few weeks ago, I saw a Big “G” on a hat at the gasoline station and said, “Go Dawgs.”

The person who was pumping at the other station said, “I played with Kirby here. He was always intense, but friendly at the same time. All he wanted to do was win!”

It seems that he has maintained that intensity and this year’s team has many counting on a National Championship. Wouldn’t that be something?

It was former President Harry Truman who said, “The buck stops here.” Never is that more the truth than with a football coach. It doesn’t matter if the cupboard is bare or full, the responsibility for winning is laid upon the coach. Win and the world is your friend; lose and you will know just what loneliness is all about.

Although the Notre Dame-Georgia game is Saturday at 8:00 in the evening, the festivities have already begun. Just a few years ago, Georgia went to South Bend, Indiana, to play them. Notre Dame Stadium’s capacity is almost 80,000 and, in 2017, Georgia fans filled at least half.

I’m afraid, for Notre Dame, they won’t be able to have one-half of Georgia’s stadium. Sanford Stadium seats about 93,000 and ND will be lucky to have 5,000 of those seats. It’s going to be loud and unfriendly for the Fighting Irish. As they say in politics, “they better have their big boy pants on.”

Of course anything can happen. It’s why they play the game. At the same time, I would be very surprised if Coach Kirby Smart, formerly of Bainbridge, doesn’t end the night with a big smile on his face!