I was sitting outside a little earlier, sipping on a hot cup of coffee, soaking in every ounce of this glorious day and thinking about how much days like today rekindle great memories that I carry in the satchel of my youth. One of those memories may well have been one that I would have wished to forget as a child (raking leaves) but looking back now, I realize that raking leaves wasnt as much a burden as it was another wonderful life experience....another trowel of mortar if you would....serving to build and strengthen who I was to become as a man. I can close my eyes today and still see my older brother Wayne walking through the back yard with a box of leaf bags in one hand and the rake in the other. I would not be very far behind (as was the case much of the time when it came to my big brother) and we would both be dreading the task that lay before us. We did not have a single tree in our entire yard, but our property was surrounded by monumental oak, maple and pecan trees, all of which were happy to share their fall bounty with us each year. Couple that with the fact that our entire back yard was fenced with a solid concrete wall that would not allow leaves to escape, and you can imagine just what we were up against. With an 80-100 bag haul at each clearing, we knew that it was an all day task, so we would make it as fun as we possibly could. We would race to see who could rake their section the fastest...race to see who could bag the most leaves within a set time period....or....just see who could pack the bags the tightest without them splitting open. There was also the fun of the massive leaf pile, as depicted in this photo. It didnt matter that the leaves were going to compress and you were going to hit the ground with a bone jarring thud...nope....if there was a pile of leaves, they were going to be dove into, flipped into or wrestled into. As I am typing this now, I am remembering the smell of the wet and molded leaves that would be trapped under the dry ones....I remember the way that the sunlight shown trough the trees and gave visual life to the millions of particles that we had stirred up....I remember the whoosh of the air escaping as you would jump onto your leaf bag in order to compact the leaves and fit just a few more....I remember the feeling of picking leaves from the tines of the rake every few moments and considering how I might improve on the rake design and make millions. All of this, I now remember with great fondness....but my greatest memory is that of spending time with my big brother.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 17:31:02 +0000
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