TheBanyanTree: stories part 2

[Bonnie Brace]

Every Autumn my brothers and I would help Poppa with the raking of the leaves in our huge front yard. By the time we were finished the pile would be about 4 feet high and six feet round. Then it was time to celebrate. We would grab the largest step ladder Poppa had and carry it to the pile of leaves. One by one we would climb to the top and looking down at our mountain of leaves we would yell GERONIMO and jump into them!  Oh, the joy those few seconds lying covered in a pile of the sweet dry smell of autumn gave. It was moments such as those  that I felt more alive than any other time of the year.  

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About a year and a half ago I was run over by a car. Now the thing about the accident that makes it so bizarre  is because it was my own car. Luckily the other person, who was 80 something years old, only had minor injuries which required about 50 stitches and a week in the hospital. Me, however, I spent 2 months in the hospital in a drugged haze. About the only thing I remember of the accident itself is after, when I was lying on the ground, suddenly looking up and seeing all these good looking EMT's and firemen surrounding me, asking me questions and telling me they have to cut off my clothes. I am not sure if I said this out loud but I remember thinking Wow, my a fantasy come true and it has to be in the parking lot of the local grocery store in the middle of winter and I had to get run over!  By the time I got to the ER the EMT's and firemen had been replaced by doctors and once more they told me they had to finish cutting off the remainder of my clothes. Just before they sent me to that happy stupor in which I stayed in for weeks I remember thinking  "Oh yea sure yet another fantasy trying to come true and it has to be now...fade to black...

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Years ago I lived in Columbia Md. Being born and bred in New England and growning up in a small country town living "down south" and some place that was considered a city was a new experience. It took sometime to get used to this "New City" and the fact that most of the streets were cul de sacs. Our house  happened to be on the curve of one of those cul de sacs. The houses all looked the same, except our back yard was an open space so we didn't have to worry about anyone building there. My friend Peggy had this silver Chevette that we would drive around Columbia in. It was a stick so we would have a ball going every where in it. When it came to the cul de sacs that was when we would have even more fun. We would wind down our windows step on the gas and go around and aound the circle yelling out the windows "CIRCLE!"

Now you have to picture this...a 2 door Silver Chevette, windows down, and 2 thirty something women who were quite "fluffy" yelling out the window. and we were not drinking. Going around and around in a circle. It really was quite a sight.  One time we had another friend in the car with us who had no clue we what were going to do. (we were in her neighborhood  bringing her home) We decided to pull the CIRCLE on her. (Sharon do you remember?) The look on her face...well it was priceless. I think it was the only time I have ever seen Sharon speachless.  Peggy passed away several years ago but every time I see a cul de sac I think of her and some of the many antics she and I got into over the years.

<>>>>>>>>>------------Bonnie

p.s.  Thank you Tobie for putting a spark to my memory