Monday Memory: The First Pumpkin Season

October 29, 2007

It seems only appropriate that this week's Monday Memory should be about pumpkins and fall festivities. The photo above was taken at my oldest brother's orchard near Ithaca, NY, when Jesse was 18 months old. At the time, we had just moved to Iowa, and Jesse and I flew out to New York for a visit. I remember the weather being perfect, and there is just nothing like the smell of an apple orchard in October.

And back in Iowa, this was Jesse's first trick-or-treating experience. We lived in the perfect neighborhood for trick-or-treating, and Halloween in Iowa is just like I remember it from when I was a kid growing up in NY: you have to wear your parka under your costume, leaves blow in whirlwinds, and you may even have snow flurries. My mom made Jesse's bumblebee costume, and Laurel and Duncan wore it for their first Halloween.

And the question is: what possessed me to give that costume to Goodwill? That is one thing I should have saved for posterity.