I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers
Newest column from The Holmes Bargain Hunter:
Fall is simply the best time to gather your loved ones and
hop in the car for a little ride. The leaves are bursting with color, the air
is pleasantly cool, and you just need to get outdoors. When I was young, we
took lots of car rides down winding back roads. You never quite knew where you
would end up, but it never mattered because each turn and patch of woods we
traveled through was more magical than the last one. Deep hollows, ridges
splashed with the fire of stately trees, and huge rocks you could climb all the
way to the top on. We would stop, sometimes, and walk around. Leaves, rocks,
small sticks found their way into my pockets and would be carefully placed in
my box of treasures when I got home. Usually, we would end up where there was
ice cream, and a cone with big drips down the side found its way into my hands.
Here in NE Ohio, fall has a bounty of things to take part
in. But fall, especially fall, is when Ohio becomes ethereal in its beauty. I
was driving home the other day from a shopping trip and I took the time to soak
in the beauty of the fall trees. Fog was drifting in slowly, and the trees were
not quite to their point of brilliance for the season. Our rolling hills were
so beautiful, and sometimes it takes leaving here to really appreciate them. My
daughter, who has lived in Florida for the last four years, tweeted something
that went like this, “I hope it rains all day so I can be cozy and smell this
pumpkin candle and pretend it's actually fall here.” She loves where she lives
but when you grow up with the four seasons it’s hard to get adjusted to fall
being hot and humid. For myself, I would simply shrivel up in a corner if I
couldn’t breathe fall’s nippy face.
Pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and haunted attractions are a
few of the things one can take part in when the fall season comes around. We
live right across from a corn maze, so I smell the smoke from their soup pot
boiling away across a fire, savory blend of beans and ham. The whoosh of the
pumpkin launcher reaches me daily, as do the shrieks of delight from kids on
the giant slide. The corn maze itself seems huge to me this year, spreading its
vast self out over acres, the rustling of dried corn stalks blowing gently.
These kinds of places do charge a fee to get in so be prepared to shell out for
your chance to run through the maze.
I also must take the time to buy pumpkins for my porch, for
what would it be without those wonderful, orbs of orange? As October 31st
nears, my kids and I carve them into grinning faces to be lit with a candle for
passers-by to see. It’s a tradition that I will never stop, even when my kids
are long gone. Pumpkin-carving is a rite of fall for me. Over the years the
beloved pumpkin has taken a hike in price so I may not have as many of the huge
ones, and I’m a bit more selective in choosing them. I like to get the ones the
sit plump and square – ones I know will grin spectacularly in the twilight.
A lot of people don’t like haunted attractions and shun them
with a voracity that puzzles me still. For us, it is also part and parcel of
fall. Read this post
I wrote from several years ago to get an idea of what trick or treating was
like in Berlin long ago. I miss it still. We’ve taken many a spooky ride
through Panther Hollow and to the Headless Angel. It’s part of mine and my kids
growing up years. As they got older we would sometimes visit “haunted” corn
mazes or hayrides, and older still, visits to The Mansfield Reformatory. There
is nothing like a good, spirited chill down your spine. What you make of it is
your choice. As for us, it’s something we love to do and the thrill of it never
falters. Just this past Friday, October 11, it was my birthday and we headed
over to the magnificent Mansfield Reformatory. Chills were to be had around
every corner, but I still took the time to stop and marvel at the architecture
of the place. We were breathless with excitement until we emerged and will
continue to go every year until I can walk no longer. The price of these
attractions can be steep – the reformatory was $17 to enter – but we spend more
than that on pizza some weekends so if it’s something you’re interested in than
I highly recommend it.
Fall is an amazing time here in Ohio. Get out in it. Breathe
deeply of the fires that are burning leaves, take the time to sit and stare at
the majestic trees, and remember that as far away as you may roam – October
still remains in your heart as you knew it from home.
“There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir:
We must rise and follow her, when from every hill of flame She calls, and calls
each vagabond by name.” –William Bliss
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