Bits & Pieces

Last week I wrote about our 49th wedding anniversary. One thing I forgot to add was it’s important that both the husband and wife need to have a sense of humor. A prime example is a conversation that took place between my husband’s parents.

We had asked one of our nieces, who lived in Helena, to be godmother to our son. She opted to stay with her grandparents.

On a morning several days after she arrived, my father-in-law looked out one of the kitchen windows to see it had snowed during the night. The sidewalk leading to the garage had a light covering of snow.

Fiinishing his breakfast, he put on his jacket, overshoes, cap, and gloves. Picking up the snow shovel he kept at the bottom of the kitchen steps, he went outside.

However, while he was eating and then getting ready to go otside, it had started to snow lightly. So when he stepped out the door, he noticed the snow falling. Turning back into the house, he said to my mother-in-law, “Why didn’t you tell me it was going to snow this morning? Doesn’t do me much good to clear off the walk and driveway if it’s going to be covered up with more snow.

“I told you while you were eating that the forecast called for more snow today,” she replied.

Our niece looked up from her breakfast and commented, “Grandpa, you and Grandma have been married 47 years. I thought you’d have fought about everything there is to fight about in that time.”

“Well, harumph!,” came his answer. “There’s always the weather!”

The cool mornings and the smell of the fresh, crisp air reminds me of other fall smells – cinnamon, as pots of apples are turned into applesauce and apple butter, burning leaves, fire in the fireplaces, roasting marshmallows, the last of the peaches and pears and grape jelly being made, and gathering black walnuts.

Fall also brings the brilliant colors of leaves as their chlorophyll withdraws. The reds, oranges, yellows, and more spread across wooded areas much as the paints used by artists flow across a canvas to create a lovely landscape.

With temperatures dropping, it’s time to put away the summer wardrobe and bring out sweaters, sweatshirts and jackets. And, while going through everything, memories surface and bring smiles.

As the year starts winding down and the seasons change, we shoud find some time to think back over what has happened in our lives - the ups and downs, the twists and turns of our life’s journey. We just might come across a surprise or two.