Raking leaves...leaves blisters and awakens falls of the past

Raking leaves.

Yuck. Who likes it? Not me, but my friend needed her one acre yard raked, and since she is paying me, I couldn't resist.

Still, yuck. The wind fights you every moment, fickle as Mother Nature is, blowing one direction, then another direction within a minute's time.

In Palymyra, PA, you rake to the street, and the town's  big vacuum comes by and sucks them up. Pretty cool use of tax dollars in my opinion.

Some towns you bag them, and they are taken away.  Also cool.

Some yards are near the woods, so you can dump there. Cool again.

It is great exercise, nice to be out in the stimulating fall air, and you have time to think. So, I guess it is not all bad.

As I was raking and thinking today, this memory came to mind.
Years ago, my father volunteered me to rake someones yard. I roped my little brother Si into helping me somehow. The great businessman that our dad was, had offered to do it for $10. Although that was 25 or so years ago, trust me, $10 was like working for peanuts. The yard was HUGE, and every inch was covered with approximately 4 inches of leaves. We raked like crazy all day. In the process we broke one of the old guys rakes. At the end of the day, we knocked on the door, explained we'd finished, but had broken a rake. "This changes things" the old fellow says. My brother looked at me, and we just smiled, figuring he wouldn't pay us at all, since now he had to buy a rake. However, he took mercy upon us tuckered out kids, and gave us $15 instead. We promptly went to whatever passed for "Subway" back then and ate our whole days pay.

Somehow, my brother forgave me for roping him into that job. We learned that hard work and honesty do pay off, if not in dollars, in feeling good about yourself.

I haven't asked Si-Si to rake with me since, but it is now fun to laugh at that story.

I am a Putnamaniac while raking leaves, lots and lots of leaves!