We Call It Fall

FTLComm - Tisdale - Sunday, October 14, 2001

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As I looked through this morning's rain streaked windows at the stubborn leaves clinging to their twigs against a Northwest wind. I was caught in my mind's eye looking at "Jane" struggling against the black lines angling across the page holding her hat in place and stepping through the puddles. For you kids who did not learn to read with "Dick and Jane" this harsh illustration will not be hiding their in your memory, but for those of us who did, we were introduced with that story to the word "autumn".

Now for you who read my pages, you are well aware of the tremendous challenge spelling poses to me. Imagine the confusion, already beset by a teacher trying to use phonics with "Dick and Jane" which was designed to teach reading as a sight language and little "Tim," the guy who questioned everything, especially a word with an "n" and "m" beside one another. It is a blessing that Western Canadians call this season "fall" otherwise I would have been destine to spend my life referring to this as the season between summer and winter.

It began raining during the night and is still halfheartedly spraying us with light rain as the temperature edges downward steadily and we might soon see it snowing. The stock car racer from Wadena will have to settle for yesterday being the last race of the year as today's events have been shelved. But throughout the town the tiny water missiles have been knocking off the leaves and covering the streets under trees that had stubbornly held on to their leaves up until now. A gutter plugged up downtown in front of the "Ole General Store" with golden leaves. After what seems like an eternity since last there was precipitation, the streets shine, as the dull dark fall clouds hover overhead and the wind drills the raindrops toward Jane and the windshield like black lines on an illustrator's page in a reader from fifty years ago.