On the third day of the blog challenge from The Sits Girls I give you a favorite Fall memory. I have a few, however, the one that keeps rearing it’s little head is when I was a child.
Both sets of grandparents lived on farms about 80 miles south of our home. We would travel there for weekend visits on a regular basis. I have such fond memories of the leave raking event that took place every Thanksgiving holiday.
There were tons of trees in both yards; and being old farm houses, they didn’t have air conditioning, except for the pleasant breeze provided by those towering Maple trees. It wasn’t until I was a teen that my maternal grandparents got a window unit for the living room. If truth be told, it wasn’t until I was a teen that they got indoor plumbing, but that’s more of a Winter tale, as in we had to go to the outhouse in the freezing weather, but I digress.
Back to the memory. We would divide our time between the grandparents’ houses, and multiply our efforts, as we raked, and worked, and jumped, and burned all those leaves. The smell of burning leaves never fails to take me back to those days of old…
The feel of the crisp Autumn air against my young skin, soon turned to warmth as I diligently worked alongside my comrades, to rid the yard of the beautiful crumbling masses of color.
The laughter echoing as my brothers and I would make the biggest pile we could before we took turns jumping into the shrinking heap, raking more, and doing it all again, until we were told it was time to add yet another pile to the fire.
Picking out the stray leaves and tiny twigs that somehow found a way down our shirts and jackets, poking our skin while settling into the crevices of donned and discarded and donned again clothing.
There are many memories of Fall but the ones that sweetly linger are the ones of days gone by.
Beautiful! I’m always a little sad in the fall because I can’t seem to get into the spirit without thinking of winter’s arrival – and brrrrrr! But my birthday is in the fall, so I do have fun birthday memories and Halloween memories.
I agree with the winter part. Enjoy your birthday and Halloween fun!
memories with grandparents are so wonderful! Thanks for sharing today! Stopping by from SITS!
http://www.fortheirtenderhearts.com
I do miss my grandparents and cherish the memories. Thanks for stopping by!
Raking leaves is such good exercise and the best cooling off is jumping in them after!
Stopping by from SITS,
Sara Ivy
http://saraivy.org
I do agree! Thanks for stopping by!
With all this talk about leaves and jumping in them I’m feeling a bit left out. We don’t have tons of tree’s that loose their leaves here in the desert. I love your storytelling skills your digretions are only starting points for more blog post 😉
Sorry about no leaves. The desert has a beauty all it’s own. Thank you for your kind words and good idea about my digressions.:)
Beautiful! I miss raking the huge piles of leaves we always had in northern Utah! I’m ready to move out of the Southwest to somewhere with actual seasons again.
I do enjoy experiencing the seasons…except for winter. After Christmas I’m done with that one! Thanks for visiting.
I LOVE fall, I love the colors, the apples and pumpkins, the cool evenings with hot soup.
Hellp Cindrella! I’ve already made my first pot of soup. 🙂
When I was a kid, I also loved jumping in the leaf piles! My Dad would just get them raked and I would jump in them and spread them all over the yard again. 🙂
OvertiredMommy.com
That’s the way it’s suppose to work, right? 🙂
My kids have the same memories as you. We use the leaves for mulch though we don’t burn them. Being a kid is fun.
Aww…good memories. I don’t think burning is eco-friendly so mulch is a great idea!
Ah, childhood memories are so sweet. I love how simple everything seemed in those days.
Visiting from SITS today.
Very well written! So different from a CA fall season! We get wind and heat! Visiting from SITS!
-Simone
busyasahoneybee.blogspot.com
I miss our old house with two big maples. I miss raking the leaves crazily enough.
Visiting from SITS