LABOR DAY 2008

MSN

How are you celebrating? A parade? A party? Camping? Fishing? Boating? Biking? An amusement park?

We used to clean the school grounds and have a community picnic. It wasn't a picnic without scalloped corn, green beans with bacon, fried chicken, apple and peach pies. The adults cut the grass, picked up debris, swept and scrubbed while we tested the equipment. Dad looked at the swing and said, "Stay off. That pin will come out." Well, what did he know?

Two days later Lois asked me to pump. I loved to swing, and I couldn't refuse an upper classman. We were just sure we could get so high we could go all the way around. I pumped higher and higher until . . . oh, no, the pin came out. She lit on top of me on all fours, unhurt, but sprained. The swing seat broke my leg.

Grandpa and mother stopped canning pears to rush over. He made a barnwood splint. She tore up her apron. They put me in the car and took me to the hospital. All the way I begged, "Don't tell Dad. Please, don't tell Dad."

Whatever you do, have a safe and happy Labor Day that keeps you out of the Emergency Room.

2008 Red Convertible Travel Series

Sun Followers

MSN

I love how they wake up in the morning and face the sun in appreciation. All day they follow it across the sky. At noon they turn up to look it square in the eye. In the afternoon they bow their heads in thanks.

It's when they have soaked up all the sun and earth have to offer that they hang their heads in a final sunset. And wait. Wait for the gigantic and noisy guillotine. It's not a bad thing. They are glad to be, just be, bird and people food. A legacy of seeds will escape the header to sprout next year, and gardeners and farmers will plant more, perpetuating the circle of life.

2008 Red Convertible Travel Series

Airlifting Apples

The kids are back in school. There's a cool undercurrent in the air. Crickets and locusts are sounding off. Summer is fading. Our neighbors shared their sauce and pie apples. I intend to make handpies of puff pastry filled with apples.

Working in my front office I noticed a couple of fallen apples in my yard and a squirrel trying to lift one up the tree backwards. A foot off the ground he lost his grip. After several tries he gave up. A bit of apple flavor must have touched his tongue because he stopped, picked up the apple and ate half of it. Half is a lot easier to hoist.

Apple halves lay in my yard one day and are gone the next. Did he haul them up the tree, or bury them? I won't know until spring. I'm just glad I got my apples before the squirrel did.

2008 Red Convertible Travel Series