Peak Fall

Last month when the boys had a four-day weekend, I got a bit nostalgic thinking about my beloved fall breaks in college.  For some reason, that was my favorite break of the year.  I think it was a combination of being in the sweet spot of the semester (so homework was manageable), the lovely fall foliage-filled drive home, and the prospect of seeing friends and family for what might be the first time that semester.  Good food, a comfortable bed, and a change of scenery for four days felt mighty good every time.  Thanksgiving was typically colder, and both Thanksgiving and Spring breaks tended to be heavier on the homework.  Thanksgiving was only about a week or two out from finals, and Spring break was a week long and I guess they figured it was too long to not have work to do.  Christmas and Summer were nice because of their duration and complete lack of homework, but that also meant the expectation was to get a job if possible.  So, fall break was really the best of the bunch, and I still get a little adrenaline rush thinking of my excitement packing up on those Friday afternoons in early-to-mid-October.  I was always worried about missing the best fall views in Geneseo, but thankfully I think plenty was still waiting for me upon my return.

All of that got me thinking about other fall traditions and memories, too.  I don't actually think I've dived into those here all together, though I've maybe referenced them in relevant posts.  Now, as we head into the darkest part of fall and all the golden, leaf-filled, Indian Summer days are past, I suppose it's time for a reminder that other parts of fall are the lovely trade-off for late fall's blahs.  So, let's do a deep dive.

Bazaars - One of my most enduring memories of fall is church bazaars.  I still purposely go home sometimes to make it to one or another.  Our old church's is a shell of its former self, but it still brings back memories and is a good chance to say hi to people or make the old ladies feel older...haha.  My mom's childhood church still does theirs as well, and I have fond memories of going there on Saturdays with my mom and grandma, browsing, and then eating lunch.  But my St. Matthew memories are the strongest.  It was in the church basement where we usually ate school lunch, so that Friday was always notable for eating lunch in our classroom and knowing there was fun to be had immediately after school.  My mom was usually working down there, so I could run down after school and start shopping.  My grandma (other one this time) ran the Green Thumb booth, and I always stopped there to say hi (and get slipped a $5 bill for my own shopping--she was the best!).  I'd usually buy a tiny plant from my grandma, stop at the candy stand, maybe shop the tchotchkes at the Sunday School bookstore booth, browse the attic treasures (think garage sale), and of course make a themed button at the button booth.  You'd decorate a paper circle--either color in a black and white Xerox copy of a picture, or add a sticker, and they'd put the plastic cover over and stamp it together.  I had so many over the years of favorite characters, and later school spirit ones to add to my cheerleading uniform.  It was one of those rare times as a kid where it was okay to roam and shop unattended, and the independence was downright intoxicating.  

Fall Leaves - Some of my best adult fall memories are from my fall hikes, some with Carter, some without.  I do remember going to Letchworth as a kid, and that was a memorable fall moment.  But mostly I remember playing in the leaves.  At our old house, I remember the thing to do with friends was make leaf "houses" by pushing the piles of leaves into outlines of "rooms".  Seems simplistic and I'm not even sure where we went with that once they were built (did we "play house?"), but it felt like the cool thing to do once you felt too old (no such thing, in reality) to jump into leaf piles.  But my hikes are probably my favorite, and I look back on my pictures fondly.

Letchworth when I was a kid

Baby Jacob's first time playing in leaves

From our last hike at Stony Brook in 2022

College - Speaking of Letchworth, I recall a Sunday evening back in my freshman year of college where we decided on a whim to go to Letchworth.  It was me, Mary, our friend Gina, her roommate Jill, and another dormmate, Lissa.  I think we were all itching for a good procrastination device, and Gina had a car.  So we hopped in, headed to the park, and got a couple pictures of the dam before it got too dark and we had to leave.  Of course, that wasn't my favorite college memory of Letchworth--that one was in the spring when I (stupidly, naively) went up on the railroad bridge with friends during a picnic and captured a very cool shot over the waterfall.  But that fall night felt like the epitome of college life--being independent and skipping studying in the best ways possible.  There was something oddly cozy about the fall semester at college.  Coming back to our room on a rainy afternoon and taking a nap, the rush of getting up at the crack of dawn to register for classes in-person, going to breakfast in the dark in December, and that fantastic feeling of finishing your last exam before going home for Christmas.  I always felt so at home in my dorm rooms, and fall was the best time to snuggle in.

The view of the dam from that night in college

My favorite spot for a cozy nap

Hockey - While it has been less of a thing lately, I have a lot of fall memories tied to hockey.  From training camp starting in mid-September, which I often went to with my cousin, to getting to my first Sabres game of the year sometime in the fall, to my very busy fall seasons when I worked for the Amerks, it will likely forever be tied to this season for me.  I fell in love with hockey in October nearly 35 years ago (wait, what?!), and one of my best memories was coming home from college to go to the Sabres' home opener in their new arena.  That was such an amazing experience, even if I was crushed the prior spring when the old one closed.  There was nothing quite like a crisp fall evening heading to the arena for a game.  I'm a little sad that working in sports took the edge off that feeling for me, but once in a while I can feel it again.    

While this picture was one of my most prized possessions, it's also a bit cringe because it was my fangirl self getting my picture taken with one of my favorite Sabres at training camp.  I thought he was SO hot.  But my cousin could drive us there, so that felt pretty darn cool.

Walking into the arena for the first game in 1996!

Halloween - Halloween as a kid was the best.  I always had creative and/or cobbled together costumes, usually from my grandma's craft stash or my mom's sewing machine, and there were few things more fun than our classroom parties, seeing everyone's costumes and eating treats.  Trick-or-treating was usually fun, but weather is always a factor around here!  I remember at least one rainy year, and being rather chilly.  I'm not sure anything compared to this year's cold, wind, and rain, though!  I've loved watching my kids go through Halloween, too.  I know we're coming down to the end of it, but I have good memories of fun costumes, creative jack o'lanterns, and cute baby pics with baby pumpkins.  Speaking of pumpkins, I feel like pumpkin patches were less of a thing when I was a kid--in fact, I only remember going to one when I was in Brownies.  But what I do remember was going to our local farmer's market, usually as part of a school field trip (where we walked probably a mile there and back!) to pick up classroom pumpkins, and sometimes we'd each get a small one of our own.  We'd also buy ingredients for a cooking project, like apple crisp or Stone Soup (per the children's book of the same name).  That was always so much fun.  I'm honestly not even sure where we got our pumpkins for home when I was a kid--maybe a separate trip to the market, or maybe a roadside stand somewhere?  Or maybe my mom picked one out without us?  But I do remember always carving our pumpkins as a family, and that's probably why I keep doing it despite less-than-participatory kids these days.  Oh, and two of my very favorite memories involve being a spectator!  The first year we owned a house, I was all excited to give out candy.  However, my grandma died right before Halloween, and I had to be in Buffalo that night.  I remember sitting on my parents' porch on a very mild night with my mom and brother as my mom gave out candy, and we watched the neighbor scare kids by popping out of a coffin on his porch.  A year or two later, on another really nice night, I sat outside and watched a neighbor at our house do the same thing.  It was hilarious!

My mom absolutely outdid herself that year!  I think I was four.

Craig's and my first trip to Stokoe Farm in 2007...and also one of the first pictures of me pregnant, although we didn't know it yet.

All-time favorite Halloween pic of the kids

Trips - Fall has been the time of a few really fun trips.  In addition to the late leaf peeping hikes I've done en route to Binghamton, there was my Chihuly trip a few days before I found out I was pregnant with Jacob, our trip to Atlanta when I was pregnant with Carter, and our fun Baltimore trip for lacrosse eight years ago.  The Chihuly trip to Pittsburgh was what officially launched my obsession, although another exhibit 10 Novembers earlier during a college Thanksgiving break was the actual beginning of my fandom.  I loved that trip but slept terribly and came home completely exhausted.  Who knew that was my first sign of pregnancy?  Finding out I was pregnant two days later and dealing with those first few weeks was a whole other type of fall memory--very bittersweet for a lot of reasons.  While we were thrilled, I was also terrified, nauseous, and hated living a double life before we felt comfortable telling people.  That had to be the longest November ever.  Atlanta was a somewhat impulsive trip to get Craig to see Chipper Jones before he retired. It was a pretty cool trip, between the zoo, the Cyclorama, a Braves game, exploring the Olympic park, and going to our first Legoland Discovery Center.  Baltimore was one of the first family trips where we actually felt functional despite the sibling rivalry and general behavior challenges we had back then.  We had a full day of fun before a long, cold lacrosse weekend--Camden Yards, Fort McHenry, the Inner Harbor, and the aquarium.  It was quite a day, and probably was the first the trip that gave me hope we could vacation peacefully again after a few really tough years.  Our first family Raptors game was in the fall, too, although very late--close enough to visit a Christmas market!  Technically, we did two fall Disney trips, too--but one was closer to summer and the other was closer to winter, so I won't count them!

A Chihuly in Pittsburgh

Jacob and (halfway pregnant) me in Atlanta

The boys at Camden Yards (look how tiny!)

The jellyfish I was obsessed with at the aquarium

At the Christmas market in the Distillery district

Thanksgiving - Thanksgiving is obviously a special kind of family time.  I miss the dinners with my aunt, uncle and grandma.  Some years we ate at our house, some at my uncle's, but all were delicious.  I still look back fondly on our early Thanksgivings with Craig's family, sharing what we were thankful for and cozying in for the evening to do some online Black Friday shopping.  Things have evolved and this year is a complete question mark on that side because of family dynamics and Craig's parents' move, so that's a bit of a bummer.  On my family's side, I think back to being a kid and hating that every Thanksgiving eve was spent at church (inexplicably still in my skirt from chapel day at school because my mom wouldn't let me change) because we needed to rehearse for the big service the next morning.  Thanksgiving morning's service was a production--from the food pantry donations being brought to the altar and the "Scenes of Thanks" slide show shown throughout the service with church and school pictures from the last year, to the giant flag backing the altar that was dramatically raised mid-service and the massive chorus on the altar at the end (all choirs, school included) being directed by the pastor from a special stand placed in the aisle.  It was a LOT, but it somehow worked.  This year Thanksgiving falls on what would have been my grandma's 101st birthday.  I've been thinking about her a lot.  Sometimes we'd celebrate her birthday on Thanksgiving eve with cake--just what we needed before a giant meal!  But when I was a teenager, I loved Thanksgiving eve because there was always a Sabres game!

Based on what I'm wearing, this was more than likely a Thanksgiving eve, complete with a couple cousins home from college

I know there's more memories buried in my brain and my photos, but these were some of the big ones from a lifetime of autumns.  It was fun to look back at some of these old pictures and think about things I haven't thought about in a while.  Life is changing and so much of what fall looks like now is so different from what made past ones special.  We're still making our own memories (World Series, anyone?), and they may feel a world away from some of these, but I'm grateful for each and every one.