Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for October 25, 2024

Autumn memories.

Notice the similarity in the bill of Arlo’s cap and Janice’s hair? :-)

Is there anywhere in the U.S. that leaf-burning is still legal?

I loved the burning leaves when I was a kid. As an adult, I loved our burn barrel in Illinois.

Ah, the golden days when you could burn your leaves and pretend they didn’t pollute the air…..

I love the smell of burning leaves. Hard on my sinuses now though. Had a couple fall into my BBQ pit a few days ago as I was starting the fire. Was an accident. Honest.

Teenager dreams?

Those were the days.

Young Arlo has a “Star Trek: The Next Generation” shirt.

I still remember my maternal grandfather burning leaves in suburban Boston. My paternal grandfather piled them up against the house and held them down with tar paper and lathes. They helped insulate his dry stone foundation from the Vermont winters.

I no longer rake my leaves. I leave them as natural compost for the lawn, as a winter shelter for various critters like bumblebees, plus it keeps them out of the landfill. How cool is that? To feel smugly superior for having an ecological excuse for indulging my laziness! :^)

Good grief, it’s a cartoon.

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Farmers used to burn off their fields after harvest. It was a natural way to fertilize the ground and deter weeds and vermin. Now they have to pay big bucks for fertilizer and weed killer.

I mow my leaves to smithereens.

Lived in Detroit proper; lots of trees, all varieties. Raking was a ritual; my sister and I and dad. Raked them directly into the street gutter and dad would light them up (after some jumping and reraking) and light them up. Same thing up and down the street. I can still see the whole scene in my mind. And smell it.

Life is where you live…….

There was nothing like walking home from school to the smell of burning leaves! Most people here had wire bins that they’d pile the leaves into for burning.

You can think about it, as long as you don´t do it.

For the last few days, I’ve been recalling a front-page cartoon that the Chicago Tribune ran every October, celebrating what used to be called Indian Summer: top half showed a youngster and his/her grandpa gazing out at a field of bundled cornstalks [not wrapped in white plastic like nowadays]. Bottom half showed them after sundown looking at a field of teepees with imagined native Americans moving around among them…at least that’s the way I recall it from way back in the late ’40s.

I really miss the smell of burning leaves but the smoke aggravates my asthma so much.

As usual, I have no idea what the fluff is happening in panel 3.

Our state is encouraging everyone not to rake leaves. Let them be.