Leafin'

This is the first year, probably since I was a kid, that I’ve had to deal with falling leaves. Our place in Virginia didn't have a lot of trees being a fairly new neighborhood. Mostly, we had a wooded area away from the house, and the trees we did have in the yard were small and didn't generate a lot of leaf action.

I remember back when I was a kid growing up in Harmony, NJ, we had almost every tree imaginable in our yard. We had apple trees, maples trees, oak trees, pear trees, cherry trees - we even had grape vines, red and white. Dad used to try his hand at wine making, but I think he mostly wound up with some good vinegar.

What I remember most about our annual chore of leafin’ back then, was raking the leaves into a big pile so my sisters and I could run and jump into the leaves. Then we’d rake them back up and jump into the pile again. For Halloween, we’d stuff some old jeans and a shirt with leaves – don’t remember what we did for the head, a pumpkin maybe?

I also remember we’d play this weird game of tag. I don’t recall the origin of the game or even what it was called, but the game started by one person being “it.” Most likely decided by potatoes – one potato, two potato, three, etc. If you don’t know about potatoes, I don’t know what to tell ya. Anyway, so one person is “it” and they get buried in the pile of leaves as if they’re dead. The rest then kneel around the pile as if mourning for the so-called “dead person.” At some point decided on by the “dead person,” he or she jumps out of the leaves and chases down the “mourners.” The first “mourner” the “dead person” tags is it and the game starts again. If no one is tagged, the “dead person” goes back in the leaves.

So now here I am many years later and we got leaves. Not running and jumping into the pile, but we have so many leaves falling almost like snow flurries. It reminds me of the Charlie Brown Halloween special, “The Great Pumpkin.” I always remember all the leaves falling in the daytime scenes of the special, that all our leaves falling past the window remind me of that.

Most of our leaves have fallen this year and until yesterday were on the side of the house under one of our big oaks. The only raking I did was to rake the leaves gathered in the street gutter into the yard. Then I ran them all over with the lawn mower with the deck raised up. What I didn’t catch in the mower bag got mulched into small bits. Badda bing, badda boom, done.

Funny to look around the neighborhood and see everyone has their own leafin’ style. There were others who did their leafin’ like me, there are some who hadn’t done any leafin’, and there were some “old schoolers,” who raked every single leaf from their lawn and bagged them, quite a chore. Oh well, to each their own.

And as for me… just popped open a Sam Adams “Old Fezziwig Ale,” mmm, tastes like… Christmas.