For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for October 02, 2010

Yeah you don”t want to catch what he”s got.

I remember growing up, my friends and I used to love raking the leaves into a gigantic pile so that we could jump into them… none of the parents ever seemed to mind ;-)

My granddaughter loves to rake leaves.She’ll have several large piles to jump into and roll around in. Oh the joy of being that young and having so much fun.

OLD MAN ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ah, the smell of burning leaves.

I remember when it was legal to burn your pile of leaves…

From the time my wife was a little girl, she would love shuffeling her feet through piles of autumn leaves. Now she is gone I anxiously wait for fall so I can do the same. “Memories are made of this.”

I’m just wondering: where are leaf blowers prohibited in local by-laws?

Maybe he’s trying to pull a Tom Sawyer and get Lawrence to join him.

raking leaves is the only chore that i enjoy.

I actually like raking leaves. I also use a device that looks like a lawnmower with brushes instead of blades and find it’s fun to get big piles of leaves gathered up with it.

Well, here’s a strip that’s sort of dating itself… does anybody still rake leaves anymore, when they have the annoying alternative of using a noisy, gas-sucking, fume-spewing leaf blower? Which, of course, a kid of Michael’s age would find irresistable…

I rake leaves because 1. I enjoy it, 2. I love the smell of autumn 3. I don’t own a leaf-blower.

Ah youth - when a pile of leaves was a make shift burial mound, fort, play pen and athletic mat - and not some cold, wet mound of creepy crawly crunchy carnivorous centipede critter collection with a hint of animal feces…

I loved raking leaves as a child for the main purpose of jumping in the pile and rolling around in it afterwards even though it meant raking the same pile of leaves again in order to dispose of them. Now that I’m a grown-up and don’t do that anymore, I really hate raking leaves – especially since a majority of the leaves come off our neighbors’ trees! And no, we don’t own a leaf-blower.

LOL! Nice one , Lawrence!

Whoever came up with the d__n leaf-blower should be jailed for life or something close to it. - The ear pollution is unbelievable. - I’m much rather rake them into piles just for the pure joy of it, the crisp air that smells so good until…………a neighbor starts using his toy from hell.

@lewreader Burning leaves is a favorite of mine too. Next to the smell of leaves when you jump into them before burning them!

Amen, wellhoney, amen. Welcome to the era of Mefirst. Anyone else doesn’t matter.

That’s something I missed growing up in Brownsville, TX. None of our trees lost leaves. Heck, you needed a coat for maybe 7 days….not consecutive…though there was that one year in ‘64 or ‘65 we had a cold front that brought several days of below freezing temperatures….my friend’s father put a garden hose high up in a tree the first day and had it on a slow, steady drip, and he got an ice cycle I swear was at least 15’ as it was from the branch all the way down to the ground.

My two elderly aunts live in PA in a VERY small town which still allows leaf burning. When I go there in the fall it brings back so many memories of growing up. It brings tears to my eyes and not from the smoke. Like I said, it is a VERY small town. It is really life as we used to know it. I am in my 60’s, as are my cousins, my aunts are in their mid 90’s so this will end soon. How unfortunate. I have never heard a leaf blower in their neighborhood or, for that matter, a power mower. The most modern thing they have is an electric mower and that really doesn’t make much noise, but then, the lawns are pretty small. They still talk over the back fence when they are hanging wash, too.

I just fired my last “landscapers” last month for many reasons - but including the fact that they did a sub-par job of weeding last month and ran the ear-splitting gas blower for the entire hour without stop. I could not wait for them to leave and will try to find one who use it less (I have a lightweight electric one which I use when necessary).

I rake my leaves into a pile, then use my leaf blower which has an attachment which lets it suck up leaves to turn them into starter mulch. I also remember fondly the smell of burning leaves. I occasionally burn some in my fire pit on the back patio instead of logs.

Leaf-blowers just blow the leaves some place else (your neighbors’) until the wind blows them back again. I use a mulching mower, all summer and fall. It shreds the grass clippings and leaves, helping them decompose and return nutrients to the lawn. –And you still get the lovely aroma of freshly-mowed lawn or leaves.

that is sad, EarlWash. Haha lightenup.