Late Autumn Memories

While Raking Leaves...

I finished raking leaves a few minute ago, and it brought back childhood memories. It was never a fun job...no matter how much we raked, there were always more the next day. The large leafy trees that dotted the property occupied by the "Old People's Home" was a never-ending source of leaves for our yard...a yard which by all accounts, seemed to be a magnet for our neighbor's leaves. At times, there were so many leaves on our lawn, that they piled up at a greater depth than the clothes that littered the floor in our bedroom.

Every day we raked, but we spent whole Saturdays doing this "backbreaking work." We would awake early...look out the window...and as predictable as the sun rising each morning, there would be new leaves to "harvest". We didn't have to be psychic...during the night, the north winds dumped new leaves from the "Old Folks Home" onto our yard. Before leaving for work, Dad would tell us that he'd be back later to "check up" on our work. We would move slowly outside, and with much trepidation, would begin to move the rakes back and forth. We would rake the leaves from the edge of our property, and keep moving this ever increasing pile of leaves towards the garage. Once we reached the garage, we would dump them onto a much larger pile. This process would be repeated many times during the day. About 3:00 in the afternoon, it would be time for inspection.

"Lets see what you did." Dad would say.

Then he would add, "Your mother will do the inspection. I will let her decide if you are done."

Like a drill sergeant, she would go around and meticulously inspect our work.

"John," she would quietly say while pointing at some identified source, "these leaves have not been raked."

"But Mom...", one of us would proclaim, "we raked here earlier..."

"It doesn't matter," Dad would say. "Your mother says its not a good job, so you will need to rake some more."

Once the inspection was done, we would be raking again. How we hated this mundane task.

As much as we hated raking...we did like one thing about it...the huge bonfire that we'd create in the evening to burn those pesky leaves. Once dinner was complete, we'd prepare the leaf pile for its fate. We would get the gas can and pour its contents onto the huge leaf pile we created during the day. Once the gasoline seeped deep into the pile, Dad would take a match and light the pile...and with a "whoomph" the pile would lift several inches off the ground. Then the fire, with flames reaching 5-6 feet in the air, would begin. There is no doubt about it...even today I love a good bonfire. There is nothing better to take the chill out of a cool autumn evening.

Once the fire hit its peak, someone would go inside and get the marshmallows. We would insert the marshmallows onto sticks, place them over a fire, and watch them sizzle until one of its sides became charred. In later years, we would layer these marshmallows between two graham crackers, which was popularized in the mid 1960s into something called "smores". After the marshmallows were gone, we'd just sit around the fire and watch the flames. At some point, we would begin to sing songs. It seemed that our favorites included folk songs like Pete Seeger's, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and Peter, Paul and Mary's "Kumbaya". It wasn't the only song in our repertoire. Tim and I found old 78 LP records in the "Christmas Room", which was actually a closet that held our Christmas paraphernalia. We memorized these songs, so over time a few of these were added to our litany of Bonfire Songs. Even today I laugh when I think of "What'll I Do if the Mississippi Runs Dry", which was a melodramatic tune written in the 1920s.

Eventually the fire would turn into embers. We would just stare into the embers and watch them sizzle and crack for hours. Today, city fire codes prevent people from burning autumn leaves...too bad...while I hated raking, the bonfire made all the work worthwhile. And they continue to provide great memories as I get older.