October

I love October - it might be my favorite month.  One thing I really miss living in CA is a distinct change of seasons. 

The things I love about October - the feeling of fall in the air.  The crisp cool mornings and the warm afternoons.  The changing of the leaves.  The deer hunt.  You will understand that better if you grew up in Utah where the Friday before the deer hunt everyone wears orange and schools get out early and the Monday following the opening of the deer hunt is a state holiday.  It is having family from all over come home.  Everyone coming to Mom's for minestrone soup the night before the opening, getting up early and helping Dad make breakfast and sandwiches for everyone while Mom sleeps in.  Everyone in and out of the house from afternoon til night for a bowl of Mom's chili.  Waiting st see who gets a deer.  When I was a kid we played "deer hunt" in the yard every opening day waiting for the guys to come in from the hills.  Some of us were the deer, some were the hunters.  We had designated areas of "thicket" (even though I am sure none of us had an idea what that really was) that were designated safe for the deer and you couldn't be shot when  you were there.  Trundling each other all around the yard in the deer cart.  Once a deer was brought in, skinned and dressed we played with the feet, pulling on the ligaments to make the hoof move . . .

Once we started using a wood burning stove for heat I loved going to the mountains to cut wood.  When I lived at Hall's Crossing Bill and I would go to the Bears Ears for wood, it was always so cool up there, a nice change from the desert.  We would take fritos, bean dip and a soda with us and sit on the tail gate of the truck for a snack.  When we moved to Page we would go to Hatch and get wood with Mom and Dad.  On those trips Dad always had to take a can of vienna sausage and a pudding.  I not only loved getting the wood I enjoyed chopping it up when we got it home.

Who can mention October without thinking of Halloween?  When we were kids I remember walking around town trick or treating and some years it was so danged cold, but we still went out.  When I moved to Ogden I got into carving pumpkins and it is something I look forward to all year long.  The Halloween I enjoyed most was just a few years ago, my first here in CA.  We all dressed up and went to the Ward party.  I dressed up as a fat old man.  While Lisa and the kids went out trick or treating I sat on the porch in this big wooden chair, my head down, my hat covering my face with a bowl of candy on my lap.  I would sit very still when the kids approached, they couldn't decide if I was real or not.  The would slowly walk up to the porch and reach in to take a piece of candy and I would jump and growl at them.  Some screamed, some laughed and a few even cried.  I loved it!