I spent a lot of November battling the leaves. They were relentless. All fall down. And my neighbors, or their surrogates, joined the fight, creating a cacophony of incessant motors throbbing away in different keys. The Song of Fall.
I bought a Toro blower/vac last year and it’s awesome. How the hell did I ever get by without one? And as I was emptying a bag of shredded leaves into our recycling bin, I flashed back to the good old days when we raked leaves for hours on end, building giant piles scattered across the lawn, waiting to be bagged or burned. The whole process was tiring and tedious, but incredibly rewarding at the end when everyone’s lawns were dotted with leaf piles, like brown and orange volcanos. I can still remember the smell of burning leaves like it was yesterday.
In the not-so-distant future, most Americans, especially suburban and urban dwellers, won’t know how to use a broom or a rake. Leaf blowers and vacuums now do the work of brooms and rakes.
And Latinos working in the landscaping business do most of the yard work. So white folks don’t have a clue about tools that require actual physical labor, even the most basic, like sweeping and raking.
As our lives get easier they become far less memorable. And indispensable mainstays of our bygone days like analog clocks, paper maps, rotary phones, and garden rakes are relegated to the “What’s That, Daddy?” list of forgotten relics.