Yesterday in St. Louis it was un-seasonably cool as the remnants of hurricane Gustav arrived.
It seemed like fall! Since it was so cool, and overcast, the early evening triggered a series of certain childhood memories.
(This is where you imagine squiggly lines from the top of the screen to the bottom as we go way back in time. OK, we're there.)
I think because of the cool air, the relative darkness, and the fact that I had been in school all day made playing outside in the fall all the more fun. I remember wearing those hoody sweatshirts with the strings that always got pulled into the hood somehow and running around my yard in my Sears Toughskins pants, playing, while my mom was inside making dinner.
Once in a while, you'd hear a pot clang, or the water run, but mostly you just concentrated on your playing. In the fall, there were all kinds of fallen leaves and seed pods to collect, too. We'd pretend we were farmers gathering the harvest and would haul our "harvest" all over the place and carefully sort it into piles to be saved for winter.
Or, we'd have our Tonka trucks out in the large sand-box my dad had built for us, which was another amazing place to play, while light from the windows spilled out into the shadows in the yard.
Some days we'd play the whole cowboys and Indians thing...which worked out pretty good as my brother liked being the Indian (even had an Indian birthday, complete with a tepee over the gate to our yard) and I loved the whole cowboy thing. Back then, you could even have realistic looking cap guns and have great fun blasting away at everyone. I still love all those western cowboy guns!
Some days, we'd play with those little green plastic army men, creating elaborate campaigns in the flower beds and among the shrubbery. Strangely, we had a set of astronauts similar to the army men - except they were brightly colored and held various astronaut equipment in addition to their space-suits. Since we didn't have many characters, the conflicts were usually the army men on one side and the astronauts on the other. Space exploration was HUGE when I was a kid as the Apollo moonwalks were going on.
As soon as my dad would come home from work, we'd scramble to get his attention and show him what we were playing or try to get him to play along. Sometimes he would, though I'm sure all he wanted to do was relax a minute before we had to run in for dinner.
Perhaps fall was great for all the anticipation it brought as well. There was Halloween with my Casper the Friendly Ghost plastic mask and suit, or the similarly styled witch costume. Yes, I dressed like a witch for Halloween on more than one occasion! Also, a marionette. I guess I had some, um, interesting costumes for a boy! Then my birthday, and Thanksgiving with all the Pilgrim decorations, and a cool horn-o-plenty filled with fascinating gourds. Of course, the moment Thanksgiving was over, the Christmas Season was in full swing with special church services, Advent Wreaths and Angels and Mangers with Wisemen and Baby Jesus along right along with "The Night Before Christmas", "Silver Bells", and Santa at the mall.
I'm still looking forward to fall, as an adult, but for many different reasons...though some are the same, I must admit! However, I'll save those thoughts for another post.
Last night, just for a little while, I was transported briefly back to being a kid and I want to savor that feeling for just a bit longer.
Comments