Mark’s 10-Year-Old Self Never Really Liked a Certain Season in Montana

As a kid, I remember not liking fall. And I thought that was because if it was fall, then school had just started and the snow was on its way. After about age 10, I was officially in charge of all snow removal. Ours was removed manually.

But then I got to thinking that not only was I in charge of snow removal, I was also in charge of leaves. And we did a decent-sized yard in those days. And that meant that there would be an entire Sunday spent laboring putting leaves into bags. I still remember one year when our yard produced 56 bags of leaves. Keep in mind that I was also in charge of cleaning up after Ranger, our German Shepherd.

But now, even though I own a couple of rakes, I don't use them. In fact, if your kid rakes, he could pick up a little spending cash from the Wilson house.

My riding mower sucks all those up for me now. And I'm at the golf course instead of spending my time in the yard. The courses are far less crowded this time of year. And the temperature is far better to get out and do some swinging.

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If I could make one complaint that would be losing an occasional golf ball because it rolled under a leaf. The solution is simple: My golf course makes sure that all of the fairways get the leaves blown off of them but, on occasion, my shots will slightly leave those areas.

That's OK. I'll sell my rakes and buy more golf balls.