Summer of 2008 is now behind us and the kids are back in school again.  Fall has arrived and Halloween will be here before you know it. 

I publish these pages each year as my way of getting into the Fall-Halloween spirit; sharing some of my memories of the  season and of our family's Halloweens past. 

To those who chance upon my Fall &
Halloween pages, I bid a hearty welcome. 
I hope you enjoy your visit here.

 
     Since I was little, fall season has always been a rather magical time for me.  When I was still in grade and high school, by the time summer was halfway over I was already anxiously anticipating the arrival of fall, the beautiful weather, and the start of the football season.  Of course everything has a down side and for me, it was that it also coincided with the start of school . 

     As an adult now, it's still my favorite season; the weather is just about as perfect, at least for my taste, with reasonably warm days and pleasantly cool nights.  I love that early morning and late evening crispness in the air and the bright colors as the foliage begins to turn.....and I don't have to worry about the start of school!

     One of the fall rituals I vividly remember as a kid was raking the leaves.  Not that raking leaves in itself was all that wonderful; it was that my Dad made it fun.  I may have been the only kid in my neighborhood who actually enjoyed raking leaves.  We had a 10-12 Oak and Maple trees, along with a Tulip tree, which had huge leaves, on our lot and my dad and I usually did that chore together on Saturday afternoons.  Usually, as soon as we got them raked into a pile I'd jump in them and throw them all around.  My dad would always laugh and then he gave me the job of raking them back into a pile second time on my own. 

     The leaf thing must be hereditary as my daughters did the same thing when they were little and we were living in Chicago. 

The pictures at left and below right were taken in Sep 1975 when we were living in suburban Chicago; Denise and Brandy playing in the leaf pile I'd just raked up. 

In the shot at left, Caroline is jumping into a pile of leaves in our yard in Virginia in the late 1980s.  

     And the tradition continues.  On a beautiful late fall day in 2002 I was doing some yard work and had just finished raking leaves into a big pile in the side yard.  It was 10 November, the anniversary of the creation of my beloved   Marine Corps.  Hil and I were going to meet a Marine buddy that evening for dinner and a couple beers to celebrate.  Since I'd taken the day off, I was catching up on a couple chores before getting ready to go meet Larry. 

     After raking the leaves in the side yard, I had gone around to the back to rake the leaves there.  After about 10 minutes I heard laughing and squealing from the side yard and I went to see what was going on.  When I got there, I found that my oldest daughter and my grandchildren had come over for a visit.  Cameron and Sydney had made a bee-line to the leaf pile and were rolling around in it, giggling, and throwing leaves at each other under their mother's supervision .  

The picture at right shows Denise with her children, Cameron and Sydney, playing in the leaf pile I'd just raked in our yard on 10 Nov 02