On Monday morning, I pulled out of the garage around 6:15 or so, with my windows open to the roughly 50-degree weather outside.

It was still dark as I drove through my neighborhood. No one was moving. As I glided towards work, I just listened to the breeze and the hum of the engine.

Normally I would put on the radio or listen to some music. But as I got to the bottom of the hill I hesitated and decided to ride in silence, with the windows open to the fall weather.

October, my favorite month of the year, is here.

I made my way into downtown to get a raspberry muffin at Irving’s. Not many people were out and about as I cruised along College Avenue. How different it would all be in an hour as students slowly emerged to make their way to their 8 o’clock classes.

As a kid, October was a huge month. Oct. 7 was The Feast of Our Lady of Victory. As a student at Our Lady of Victory School we knew that date. It meant a day of fun, no classes and a flag football game between the fifth- and sixth-graders. All these years later, when Oct. 7 rolls around, I still know why that day is special.

HOMECOMING

October meant -- and still means -- Homecoming at Penn State.

As a kid, Friday night of Homecoming Weekend meant one of the biggest events of the year -- the Homecoming Parade. There was an excitement and electricity in the air as the floats and bands and student groups marched by. I still get that rush of excitement when I stand along College Avenue with my kids and see the same parade through their eyes -- eyes wide with the same excitement I had at their age.

October means jumping in piles of raked leaves. Growing up next to Sunset Park and its big trees meant huge piles of leaves in the park. It was hard not to want to go run around in those crackling, colorful piles.

October means scooping the seeds and goop out of the pumpkin as we carved a scary face in the Halloween jack-o’-lantern. October means the free candy we got as we trick-or-treated through the neighborhood, racing to get to as many houses as possible.

Those days are gone for me, but not forgotten. Though my life has changed, those traditions live on. It is the constancy of traditions that bind our life from one year to the next.

October turns my mind to reflection and thoughts of times past -- and the days ahead. It is a reminder of how much of life has already passed and the realization that someday we will all hit the autumn and the winter of our days.

AUTUMN ON CAMPUS

One of my favorite things in October is to drive or walk through campus in the evenings.

Campus takes on a different feel at night. It is quieter, with less hustle and bustle. It is at night on campus when you can feel the ghosts of the ages whisper to you. It is to walk on paths walked on by students from days long gone and knowing that years from now future students, generations who haven’t even been born, will walk these same paths.

Last Friday night while in Bloomington, I took a walk around the Indiana University campus after dinner. The sun was setting and a walk that began in the dusk of day’s end finished amid the dark of early evening. A bit of chill settled over the town and campus as I walked about on IU’s Parents Weekend.

I could overhear conversations of students showing mom and dad their new school. Then it hit me -- in a few short years, I too would be that parent walking across campus with my children.

Being on a college campus on a crisp fall evening is to be reminded that no matter how we fight the passage of time, inevitably it moves on. But the school and a campus stand still, even as our lives pass through them.

No matter what your age, in State College you can stay young all October long.

TO LOOK IS TO SEE

Just see the college students sitting out all day on a Friday afternoon, marking their spots to watch the Homecoming Parade.

See the smiles on the children as they ring the doorbell all dressed up for the big night of trick or treating — their cheeks rosy from the chilly night air. See that candlelight flickering inside the scary smile carved into a pumpkin.

To drink in October is to taste apple cider, both sweet and tart. October is the sweet days of late summer slowly hardened by the early taste of winter’s chill ahead.

As the days pass by, they are a constant reminder to drink in the moments and the memories created in State College.

In October.