Tuesday, October 13, 2009

My Tennessee Fall


Fall beautiful Fall

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE this time of year....it's my favorite. However, I have never been a fan of Halloween. It is hard for me to understand why anyone would not want to celebrate harvest time and fall instead of goulish things and gore. Sure it is fun to dress up, go door to door and get a big bag of treats BUT why can't we just have harvest parties and dress in costumes without all the negatives of Halloween. Give me big bright orange pumpkins resting on bales of golden hay against dried tanish corn stalks. Give me big bright red apples you can pick from a tree yourself. When I was a little girl my Mom loved this time of year too and she would bake great yummy apple pies and the most delicious acorn squash. She would wash the squash, slice them is half and fill them with just the right amount of butter (real butter), brown sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon and then pop them in the oven to bake. They would come out soft with a crunchy topping and would melt in your mouth.
AND, leaves........who does not love the golden oaks, flaming red/orange maples and burgandy dogwoods and tulip poplar trees. The thought of fall leaves brings to mind two memories of a time when fall leaves had a special meaning for me and my two youngest sons. First, I had told my youngest sons about how my sister and I and their big brothers would pile leaves high each fall and then we'd run and jump in the pile. They could not wait for the leaves to fall so they too could make a pile and jump in them .....BUT for some reason that year the leaves blew into the woods and on to the property next door and we did not even have enough to make a tiny mound let alone a big pile. They were so disappointed. One day I looked out the window and saw the boys who lived next door raking mounds and mounds of leaves in their yard, so I sneaked out and offered them five dollars each to bag four bags of leaves and dump them in a big pile in our front yard. My two youngest sons jumped over and over into the leaves and had a wonderful time. Then the second memory........one fall when we were living in a condo in Florida I was really missing my Tennessee fall. My husband called to told me how beautiful the leaves were in his father's yard. We had our condo for sale and had an offer. My husband had accepted a job in TN and had moved on before us. When he told me about the beautiful leaves in his father's yard, I cried. That weekend when he came for his bi-monthly visit he came to the door with a huge black garbage bag.....it was full of leaves from his Dad's yard. He brought six bags full and dumped them on our screened porch. It was so beautiful and so much fun. AND, it was really fun to watch guests and residence pass our porch on their way to the pool and do a double take when they would see the leaves wall to wall on the porch.
Ahhhhh yes, wonderful, beautiful fall........come on....hurry....I am waiting.