I guess I’m too old for this now (or am I?), and nobody rakes leaves into piles in my neighborhood anyway: but among my happy memories of fall is the great big piles of leaves my father used to rake up in our yard, and how we used to play in them. I remember sitting in a pile of leaves with my friend, Ellen, up to our necks in autumn leaves, pretending we were Mr. and Mrs. Zacherley trying to decide which monsters to invite over for supper–Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, etc.
Our dog, Rags, just like the dogs in this video, liked nothing better than to dive headfirst into a heap of leaves. He was white with brown spots and a tail like an anteater’s: when he wagged that tail, it was like waving a flag. My father couldn’t help spoiling him.
This was fun! And it cost absolutely nothing. You didn’t need a coach, a sponsor, or a uniform. Just the leaves, and the trees didn’t charge you for them.
I guess most kids have played in leaves to one extent or another. Our yard, when I was a kid, had oak trees, catalpa, maple and just beyond the yard, were plum, peach and some other kind I can’t even remember. It was all fun, but we made kind of a mess scattering the leaves. Nobody seemed to care though.
I always rake our leaves into a big pile – easier for me to bag them. The raking is good exercise and doesn’t make loud annoying noise like dreaded leaf blowers. After playing monsters in the leaf pile maybe a bath or shower might be in order.
Just imagine how much fun you would have had with a coach, uniforms and sponsorship. 🙂 OK, a heck of a lot less fun that way.
Yeahbut yeahbut we could get participation trophies…
Yes, those are vital. 🙂
I have fond memories of doing this too! Rolling down a little hill to land in a big pile of them. (I still have a pic of my grandmother and I doing this together, so you’re definitely not too old!) Or making them into a car shape and using a stick as a gear shift, because the idea of driving a car is of course a fascinating thing when you’re a kid. Piles of leaves were endless fun, and not cold and wet like snow. You just gotta watch out for bugs… One stray spider in that pile of leaves and the fun is over pretty fast. 🙂
We know about the bugs and spiders not, not to mention hanta virus; but we didn’t know about them then, and I’m sure I never knew anyone who got sick from rolling in the leaves.