The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

During this time of year my dad would see me and my friends playing in the yard.

He’d come out and say, “Hey kids, I’ll give you 50 cents each to rake the leaves.”

The offer was very tempting.

With 50 cents, you could get an Icee at the Pak-A-Sack, have 10 cents left for a Hershey bar with 15 cents to spare.

Why we wanted to get an Icee in December, I’m still not sure.

Just goes to being a kid, I guess.

So we’d rake them up and jump in the piles of leaves.

As a homeowner myself now, I brush them from my garage.

It’s cold; I’d rather be doing something else.

And I wonder if the fun of raking leaves was a Christmas tradition, or my dad just wanted to get out of yard work to watch the Dallas Cowboys?

It’s probably a bit a both. Can’t say I blame him, really.

And looking back I’m glad it happened. It was fun.

I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Or my dad.