Tug's Fall Thoughts For Today

Well, I’m finally back out on my bench. It is an absolutely gorgeous morning. The temperature is nice and cool, there is a slight breeze, and the sun is just now rising from behind House Mountain. I had intended to get up at 6:00 this morning. I had even prepared my coffee last night to begin brewing at that time. However, I stayed up until 3:30 am and when that alarm went off at six, I pushed the snooze until 7:45. Oh well, I don’t think I missed much.

This year, we are finally going to have some good fall colors. In my front yard alone I see yellow, orange, red, brown, and green leaves on the trees and scattered on the ground. It seems like the last couple of years the leaves have went from green to brown and just fell off in one day, never to be seen again. They appear to be holding on to the trees longer this year.

I always love the fall season. It causes me to reminisce more than most. That is both a good and bad thing. The good is all of my memories of growing up in East, TN, and all of the wonderful things that I could do. The fall meant playing in the leaves, camping out in the woods, hunting squirrels in the woods, catching stripe in the river, no more working in the garden, football, and having cookouts. The bad are my persistent memories of finding out my big sister Pam had Leukemia, for it was this time of year that the whole hellish nightmare began.

Fall would also find my dad out in the backyard, practicing with his bow and arrow, getting ready for a big deer hunt. Even though he was a Knox Co. schoolteacher, his heart was always in a patch of woods or along a riverbank somewhere. Teaching school was just his way of paying the bills. He would have been much happier to be dropped off into the middle of a thousand acres with a hunting rifle and fishing pole, and left alone. I know exactly how he feels, because I am the same way.

Fall also meant that Thanksgiving was getting close. My mother always said that that was her favorite holiday. She always got upset that people would go straight from Halloween to Christmas without giving much thought to Thanksgiving. She loved to cook and have all of the family around. She would always prepare more than enough to feed us and all of David’s army. “Well, you never know who might be dropping in,” she would say. She would take meals to patients in the nursing home every year. We always accused her of fixing everything for everybody else. But, trust me, we never did without. Of course our trek to Granny's house was always a big hit with us kids.

Well, those are my thoughts for this fine Saturday morning. I think it’s time to put this computer away until tonight. Have a good Saturday!