Autumn leaf color is slowly revealing itself – mostly browns and golds at this point but many trees haven’t yet begun to change. We’re in for a warmer stretch the next few days. It was warm yesterday. It’s time to mow the front lawn and the back forty/corral. I wonder when nature will show us that no more mowing is needed? Seems impossible at the moment.

It’s been nice to see the sun again. Sunday was sunny all day long and that has been a rarity lately. Today, tomorrow, Wednesday – I think all three days are expected to be sunny.

This time of year always reminds me of school starting, of shuffling through crisp leaves as I walked to school. Our house was in a suburb of Detroit – right next to Detroit, actually. The elementary school was across the street. Our junior high at the end of our street – a 3½ block walk. The high school was a longer walk: down the street to the corner, turn left and walk by a large field and then several more blocks, then turn left and walk through a much busier section of our neighborhood to arrive at the school. A half-mile? A mile? I’m not sure. But I never once used a school bus. Schools in our area were easily reached and walking was good for you. I don’t think any school buses operated in our neighborhood. Before the big field in front of our house (owned by Ford Motor Co.) was sold and subdivided for houses, I used to cut across the field on my journey to high school, unless it was muddy. It saved time.

My mom never learned to drive. We had one car and my father used it for work. So my parents were smart in choosing where to buy a house. All of us trekked to whatever school we were attending. I used to take an extra class in high school which started at 7:30 am, so I often walked to school in the dark. I never felt unsafe.

It was a different time.

I used to get terrible menstrual cramps. They were so horrible, I’d often feel like I was going to pass out. We tried everything for them, but the only thing that helped at all was a heating pad and aspirin/ibuprofen. Every time the cramps started, I’d do my best to get through the day until I faced the fact that it was impossible. I’d ask to be excused from class to go to the nurse’s office. The nurse would call my mom and since mom didn’t drive, I’d have to walk all the way home from the high school. Mom would stand at the front window, keeping watch for a glimpse of me starting to trudge across the field. Then she’d track me all the way, open the door, and hustle me off to bed.

Heating pads are a theme in my life. In those younger, much more limber days, I used them once a month for cramps. Now? I use one almost daily for my back.

So many hours spent praying that a heavy menstrual flow wouldn’t leak, hoping I could get to a bathroom in time to check on everything. It’s really god-awful, isn’t it? That memory is a bit softened nowadays, but if I allow myself to think about it, as I’m doing now, all of it comes back. Praying that no telltale stains appeared. Oh heavens! I feel like it took up so much of my life.

Autumn is so evocative. I bet all of us have a host of sense memories from this time of year. What are some of yours?

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.