It’s been pretty warm the past few days with temperatures reaching the 80s.

 

But it wasn’t too long ago that the late afternoon and evening chill reminded me of things to come.

 

I’m not talking about winter. I mean the fall.

 

It’s my favorite time of the year. 

 

The colors. 

 

The cool air. 

 

The end of mosquito season.

 

It wasn’t always that way. When I was growing up in New Jersey, the fall meant bouts with hay fever. While all the other kids were enjoying themselves just about time school started, I was coughing, sneezing, rubbing my itchy eyes and having trouble sleeping every night.

 

No matter what I took for relief, it didn’t make it go away. A few medicines would stop the sneezing. But most just made me thirsty - and my eyes would always be tearing. Lot of kids even thought I was crying in school.

 

Hay fever affected me through grammar school, in high school when I tried to run cross country, and for many years afterwards.

 

When I moved to Minnesota in 2000 and began farming, one the worst times of the year was late August and early September. 

 

My hay fever was bad in the middle of the city where I grew up where there were very few trees, lawns or weeds around.

 

Just imagine how bad it was when I was on my tractor baling hay. I could see all the ragweed lining the edges of the tree lines. I would have to carry a roll of paper towels in my tool box just to get through the field. By the time I got back in the house, it felt like I was battling the flu.

 

It’s not that way now.            

 

I’m not sure what happened inside my body, but over the past five years, I don’t have hay fever symptoms anymore.

 

I can still see the ragweed along the side of the road.

 

I see other people suffering with the same symptoms I had.

 

I don’t bale hay anymore. I stopped farming a few years ago. But I’m still outside a lot. Over the past few weeks - the time when hay fever symptoms are usually at their peak, I’ve been raking leaves and acorns, pulling weeds and mowing a few days a week.

 

 Not a sniffle. No red, itchy eyes.

 

Every once in awhile I sneeze, but no more than I would any other time of the year.

 

I’ve read that allergic reactions are the body’s attempt to fight off a foreign substance.

 

Normally, the immune system fights germs, but an allergic reaction is the immune system reacting to a “false alarm,” or a substance that really isn’t harmful to the body.

 

I don’t know if my immune system changed over time and doesn’t recognize ragweed pollen as a threat.

 

Or maybe with age, the immune system weakens and doesn’t work as hard anymore.

 

Whatever it is, I’m enjoying the fall now, and I can’t wait for the leaves to change color.

 

Now I don’t have to wait for freezing temperatures or snow to get relief.

 

Aaah. Fresh air!