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A family myth is that I was bred to mow the family yard in Northeast Portland Oregon USA.  Sometime in autumn (or fall as we called it) the grass would quit growing.  At the time, I didn’t think about the symbolism of fall as the beginning of decline into the winter representing death. At least in the Northern Hemisphere.  Now that I’m old, the cycle of birth, youth, decline and death as it applies to my own life is clear.

My father had jerry rigged an electric motor onto a reel mower.  I frequently cut the cord to the mower causing him extra work.  Spraying weeds from a large container of weed killer, and raking leaves from the willow trees went along with the mowing.  The raking was late summer or fall.

While in England I ran over their weird (to me) power cord. Taped it.

In college, university, and four years of teaching, I lost that lawn connection between the seasons.  The vacation between fall and winter semester, as well as less daylight and colder days was the new marker.  For the years 1973 – 1976 or thereabouts weather was my only marker for fall.

In 1976 or thereabouts we bought our first house.  I was back to yard care in Denver.  The arid climate in Colorado makes maintaining grass difficult.  When our garden hose broke the grass died in a couple of days before we could get a new one.  Tumble weed grew inside the city in abandoned lots.  On the plus side abandoned pumpkins bred a large plot of pumpkin plants.  We gave the harvest to neighborhood kids.  Denver has three seasons July, August, and winter.  Technically there was an autumn for three months, but it was more like three days between August and winter.  As we grew tired of the home maintenance and weather in Denver, we moved to a condominium at the end of our tenure there, then off to Los Angeles.

In LA autumn has slightly cooler weather and shorter days, but that’s about it.  More yard to mow and pruning to do.  We got out of Los Angeles fairly quickly and moved to the San Francisco area.  There was a variety of weather, but no snow.  Autumn didn’t mean much, lawn mowing was year around.

The circle is complete.  We’re back to the Portland area.  Lawn mowing starts sometime in spring and I’ve learned not to encourage it by watering it.  Now mowing is over about the time that autumn starts. After years with a gas powered mower, I’ve gone low tech and use human muscle on a reel mower.

Autumn in one place doesn’t resemble autumn in another place, but autumn always has Thanksgiving and the harvest that represents.

Appears in Written Tales 2.0