Fall...

Fall. Autumn. Otoño. I would have to say it is one of my favorite times of the year. Don't get me wrong I love Summer with it's fresh cut grass, warm breezes and lazy days. Or Spring with everything coming back to life after the long, cold winter. But there is something about Fall that I have loved my entire life. The brisk, cool mornings or the shortening of the days. When I was a kid in school I cold remember the feeling I had walking down the corridor to my new classroom each fall. Meeting a new teacher, making new friends or reuniting with friends who I had not seen during the Summer break. For weeks before the first day of school I would keep myself awake at night thinking about the new experiences and adventures that I would have. I was fortunate that I did not move around a lot during school I went to the same elementary school from first to fifth grade. Then in our district all the sixth graders were together in one school. Then I went to Junior High for seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. Then off to High School. So at each of the schools I attended there came a time that my grade was the top dog, we ruled the roost. I don't mean that in a demeaning way. We didn't shove younger kids in lockers or go on a rampage giving wedgies or swirlies. Just that we knew what was up, we had experience and we were familiar with our environment. As a kid and even through High School when Fall came every year it was exciting.

Then came college. The Fall after High School I found myself in a new place for school. I had never really been away from home for more than a few weeks at a time. So moving away to go to school was a new experience. I was still in Idaho, but clear on the other side of the state, five hours from home in a town about one-third the size of the city I grew up in. Needless to say it was a small and different kind of place. It was Rexburg, ID. I knew that I would be going to school for the year and then leaving on a two year mission. So I wanted it to be a good experience and pack in a lot of memories (more about those another time). The apartment I moved into was off campus and I had five other roommates. None of us were return missionaries, all freshman. So for us that Fall meant freedom. Freedom to do or not do whatever we wanted. For us that meant staying up late and then sleeping in. Many Saturdays were spend watching college football while we waited for laundry to finish. That Fall we went to many of the Ricks College football games (before it changed to BYU-Idaho). In a small college town it was like time stopped during those games. If you had to go grocery shopping or do anything on campus you would not wait; no lines. There was a lot of campus life. You had to try not to get involved someway. I remember not wanting to do homework. I remember voting in my first election that Fall.

Fall in Rexburg was windy. Come to think about it, Rexburg was almost always windy. I had a car at Ricks. I know that not many kids did, don't get excited. It was a 1978 Datsun puck up that I drove in high school and used to haul around lawn mowers. Anyway, I used to go for drives in my car to get my bearings. I drove all over town past the golf course, by the airport, past Retrix and Horkleys' (where I would work the year after my mission). I even drove out to the Teton Dam site to see the remains after the flood.

Fall (Bouquets of sharpened pencils).