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Fall Color Memories
Recollections of our childhood
by Jeff "Foliage" Folger
It's amazing to me that most youngsters today will have no recollections of the smell of burning leaves in October
(Much as they don't remember 8-tracks and albums)
But! they should be able to remember waiting on cool mornings for a bus ride to school and the warm afternoon rides back home.
Do you have the potent memory of leaves swirling around your feet as you waded through them? (I sure do) Seeing how high we can kick a batch into the air. Impromptu leaf fights with friends and siblings and then a voice yelling out the back screen door to get all those leaves raked back into a pile.
Obviously we all have different memories whether you grew up on the farm or on a city block in the downtown with nary a tree in sight, other than the park down the road.
But fall brings seems to bring these youthful memories into sharper focus. Time spent in school and with friends we haven't thought of for many years.
Do you take the time to get outside and away from the "connected" world we live in today? Do you leave the blackberry behind and even if for a short time is, "unavailable" to friends and work. I?m guilty of this as much as most of you but I want you to think about the current crop of X-generation kids. They can't imagine a vacation that doesn't have Wi-Fi and heaven forbid you try to take them camping without batteries for their phones and game boys.
Now cycle ahead 10-20 years and imagine these same kids are now adults. What kinds of memories are they going to have of the natural world around them? Maybe they will seek it out as adults more since they didn't pay attention to it as kids. (I hope so)
I'd like to hear your thoughts on this and any other subjects in either the comments section or over in the foliage forum.
Jeff "Foliage" Folger
Reader Comments
Comment from Elaine Steinbach on August 25, 2008
I remember loving fall even as a small child. The time from late September to the fall/winter holidays has always been my favorite time of year. I can remember one of my elementary school teachers taking us outside for our reading class in the middle of autumn several times during the season. She would pick nice mild days and we would sit on a grassy hill covered in orange and brown leaves and have our reading lesson. I also remember in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades our teachers would have us cut leaves out of colored construction paper and they would tape them to the walls. The observation of the changing of the seasons and holidays were a big deal back then and the students really enjoyed it.
One of my grandmothers really enjoyed autumn too, always decorating her house and yard with pumpkins, scarecrows, foddershocks, and other fall items. She made the best popcorn balls and gave them out as treats on Halloween. We liked to go driving and looking and taking photos of the foliage. We usually would go on a fall picnic every year.
Halloween was always a special time. I lived in a rural area and was related to most people in our area. I raked the candy in back then, but the best part of it was going house to house and letting the people try to guess who I was. As if they couldn't tell by my parents who were with me. Anyway I was always thrilled at that time of year and I still get a happy feeling when I go into the stores now and see the decorations and candy out. And I really enjoy seeing the few trick or treaters who come to visit. Yes, fall to me is the best time of year.
Comment from Jeff Folger on September 1, 2008
Halloween and fall has always been a great time of the year for me too. To this day I do up for Halloween. These years it at my sisters house in Atkinson NH. Since I retired from the Air Force in "03" I've been decorating the sis's house and my niece and nephews say all the kids in the neighborhood rate their house as the scariest.... Is that good or what? I still have a few more years until they are all to old to get into trick or treating... Then where will I go? :-O Jeff "Foliage" Folger
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