What a wonderful day! I left the house at 10:30 to make the rounds wearing gloves and my favorite fall coat. I bought the coat years ago in Saratoga, waiting until the price dropped so I could afford it.
I remembered another fall day when I wore it. Alex was 7 and we had gone overboard on Halloween that year. He wanted to be Garfield, so together we created a papier mache head and tiger costume for him. It was grand!
I was teaching in an alternative high school and one of my students decided I didn't seem scary enough for Halloween so she teased my long hair and then sprayed it to stand up straight. Why not? It was the spirit of the day that mattered.
I went to help out at Alex's school with the parade and party. A camera crew was there from the station in Albany and they loved Alex, following him around all afternoon. Of course in the parade the oversized Garfield head fell off and he uttered a word they promptly cut out of the news segment. Another time he fell - couldn't see in that giant head either - and I helped him up, pretty coat and scary hair and all!
We still have the tape and Alex plays it for newcomers in his life. The Garfield head, quite battered and buffeted, resides on the top shelf of my closet. It's memories like this that come back on these gorgeous fall days. I'm glad I'm not teaching any more; instead of being in a classroom I went down the lake to see a family with a beautiful camp. But I miss having my own small boy on Halloween.
