Fall Festival

I LOVE the Fall Festival. I love doing the fundraisers to raise money for it, I love cleaning up Jerry's ranch, I even love the shopping! (And ordinarily I am NOT a shopper.) I love going out and working hard to prepare everything before all the people get there. And most of all, I love the part when, after the sun is setting and the people are all there, we start the bonfire and the hayrack rides.

It's such a great atmosphere. Everyone talking and laughing, knowing in the back of their minds they're on the brink of facing another long winter. It's like the last hurrah. No one cares that the pumpkin patch is really just a bunch of store-bought pumpkins lying on the ground. No one is aware of how carefully we chose the decorations for the Alley of Terror ... the path that creeps through the trees by the pond... trying to be sure everyone would get their share of a frightful atmosphere without crossing the line into the demonic guck. (Not the easiest mission!) And definitely no one knows how much Jerry, Leonard, and I wig out at the last minute, totally convinced that we'll never pull it all together on time.

But we do. And it's always wonderful. It's a great time spent with friends out in the beautiful crisp air of the Fall season. The fire crackles, the kids run, the tractor labors in the distance pulling the hayrack around one more time. But the best sound of all? The sound of friendship. The sound of laughter. The sound of all the pressures of life being put on hold, if only for an evening, while we take time to enjoy life and enjoy each other. Friendship is such a powerful thing that we sometimes forget to fully appreciate.

But never on Fall Festival night.