Snowflakes Falling?

Well, we had a flash of snow last night. Even after all these years this is so strange to me, flashes of snow falling lightly from the sky. Before we moved to Dallas, (I was seven when we moved here.) I had lived in Egypt and Italy. Mom took me to ski when I was very young in the Swiss Alps. I knew real snow up until we moved to Texas. I think it is amusing the way the city comes to a crawl for snow, but then in the same sense the sheer delight and wonderment on the faces of the children who see it so rarely.

As I journal today I am remembering raking leaves my first fall living in Dallas. There are trees every where and in autumn the leaves are going to fall. We have "leaf fall" and not "snow fall." Our house was built back off the street and slightly elevated so there is a small hill from the yard down to the sidewalk. We had two huge trees out front and lots of leaves to clean up. I went with Dad to the Ace Hardware Store and he picked out two rakes. The rakes had colorful handles; I chose a blue one and Dad wanted the red one. I told him we needed one for mom, but he assured me she had enough to do inside the house and he and I would rake the leaves.

My dad had the ability to make any type of work fun, so I unsuspectingly looked forward to raking leaves. I proudly climbed out of the car dragging my rack with it's blue handle while watching the neighbors across the street already out raking, piling their leaves. We were going to do a compost area in the backyard, so Dad went to the garage to get his wheelbarrow. The morning flew by as I helped him rake the leaves and we piled them by loads in the wheelbarrow. He let me ride on the top of the leaves as he pushed it to the backyard to our compost area. Occasionally I didn't bail out fast enough and he "dumped" me with the leaves. My curly hair seemed to be a magnet for the leaves to tangle in. I know we worked a long time because we stopped, had lunch and went right back to work.

As we were finishing David and his brother Charlie arrived on their bikes at Nanie's house. They began raking her leaves in the front yard. Charlie was too small to push the wheelbarrow, but David pushed Granny's old wheelbarrow out of the garage. It had a flat tire. Dad let them use ours and he declared our job done for the day. Me, I decided to help the boys. By six that night I was so tired that when I sat at the dinner table I fell asleep while I was eating.

Every year I anticipate the turning of leaves in our Lakewood neighborhood. There are so many different types of trees that the colors vary from the deep reds,through all the oranges, yellows and browns. Leaves falling in Dallas are almost as exciting as snow falling somewhere else.

Only a few more day left before Winter arrives.

Lauren
10 December 2008