October 16, 2008

more fall photos....and some waxing nostalgic





i was thinking about how so many of us love fall. a facebook friend recently updated his status as, "longing to jump into a pile of crunchy autumn leaves." i feel the same. just the smell of leaves makes me happy.

fall brings back memories of shopping for school supplies (i am an office supply geek to this day!) marching band was always a big part of fall. i have an early memory of going to an apple orchard in kindergarten (we lived in kentucky). i can vividly remember the hay ride, the fall leaves, and getting to pick an apple right of the tree and eating it. it was the best thing i ever tasted. (no pesticide concerns back then.)

a favorite game in our neighborhood (willowick, late 70's) was to jump in piles of raked leaves. they would be raked on in huge stacks on the tree lawns. we would piss our parents off by jumping into the piles and spreading them all over the lawn and street. but it was so much fun!

i also love cold weather for the clothing. i get to break out cardigan sweaters and wear layers of clothes. no more sweating in the summer heat, or hiding in the house basking in AC all summer. again, a childhood memory, this time of summer: begging my mom to let me play inside in front of the fan. i wanted to be indoors, out of the heat and away from bees. nothing has changed!

the other great thing about fall: halloween! groundcat and i buy all our household goods during halloween. kitchen towels with skeletons to use all year round. if we ever put up an xmas tree, it would have to be halloween-themed. growing up, my mom made me costumes from scratch. besides being a tiger when i was 3, i got to be cool & creepy things like a witch and the devil. to this day, that devil costume was my favorite costume. it was all red satin and an eye liner mustache. my dad made me a pitch fork from an old broom & some black spray paint.

some folks hate to see summer go. they point out that the bright colored leaves are actually turning colors as they die. am i morbid for loving those dying leaves? maybe... but i like to think that it's not morbid to see the passing season, knowing winter comes next, and then spring...

golly, i'm feeling philosophical! i must have inhaled too many of those fall leaves when i walked the dogs!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nostalgia aint what used to be...

glittermom said...

Nice pics but leave off the spiders....

Jen said...

markus- i think i'm nostalgic from all the recent 20 year reunion stuff, and definetly the marching band facebook group. we're up to 155 people and it's been amazing talking to the people who really mattered in my life those years, the band geeks!

mommie dearest- the spiders are part of fall and halloween. duh! it's better then the giant centipedes...

speaking of that: if someone happened to accidentally vacumme up a giant-ass centipede, would it die instantly? or could it live in the bag? what if it was pregnant??? oh god, the next time i go to start it up, will a family of 100's of centipedes come flying out???

not that i did that.

rachel said...

The horrible thing about jumping in those leaves were all the bugs and spiders that were in there. I don't think we realized that as kids... I jumped into a pile of leaves about 5 yrs ago and just about had a heart attack when I found many spiders on me (in my hair too).... never again!

Anonymous said...

BOO! You really made me miss Ohio in this post...WHAAAAAA :(