It was a beautiful sight — neighborhood parents gathered in the driveway on a warm autumn Sunday afternoon chatting and enjoying an adult beverage as their children frolicked in the leaves. Together it made for a picture of nearly Rockwellian Americana.
Soon, the throwing of leaves and building of piles changed. The youngsters who moments earlier were scattering those leaves about the yard in seemingly haphazard fashion started moving them toward the street in concert, unasked. One child entered the garage for a rake, and then another and another. Others left to go get rakes from their own houses and returned with them in hand. Somehow in the midst of it all, littering the lawn with the leaves turned to a fun competition — who could rake more to the street first?
If you live in Naperville, you likely know that residents enjoy the convenience of curbside leaf collection. Three times each fall, crews will come around and remove from the street all leaves that homeowners have dutifully brought to the curb for disposal. Of course, that’s our part in the bargain — we must first get them to said curb before they can be taken away.
Though the trees are typically shedding leaves throughout September and October, that first collection period always seems to sneak up on us. Whether it be from more pressing matters of everyday life or through some sort of denial that fall is really here and soon winter will be too, getting that first batch to the curb always seems to be a scramble.
Sure enough, we missed that initial collection this fall. Though the city website clearly spells out that leaves must be to the curb by 6 a.m. on Oct. 19, Nov. 2 and Nov. 16, there ours sat on our lawn, unmoved for the first collection period. Realizing my error, I immediately set to work moving them to the curb in anticipation of the next collection, which made two things certain:
*Ours would be the leaves that sat in the street for two weeks until the next collection period.
*And many more leaves would fall in the intervening two weeks, assuring that the process would need to be repeated.
Sigh.
And so that Sunday afternoon was designated for phase II of leaf removal, the day when I’d catch up to the rest of the neighborhood, ensuring that our yard, like theirs, would be back in sync with biweekly leaflessness. Until the kids beat me too it. It’s amazing what we will sometimes see as the drudgery of home ownership and day-to-day life can to others be an exhilarating childhood memory in the making.
As we looked on, kids from the five different families who’d formed an impromptu gathering in our driveway voluntarily took action against the leaves with expediency and purpose unlike anything we’d have seen had we actually asked them to do so. Marveling at the magical occurrence before us, we let them go, amazed at what we were seeing, resigned to the reality that things would not always be so.
It was as much bewilderment at what we were witnessing as it was a desire to have our yard cleared that we let them rake on, juice boxes and Gatorades serving as all the motivation they required. Had the lads and lasses not done it, it still would’ve gotten done, but what a joy it was to watch the kids make so much fun of what they were doing.
Of course, there are differing schools of thought on the whole leaf collection thing in the first place. The city of Naperville also provides free bagged leaf collection, from Nov. 2 to Dec. 11 this year, saving residents the customary $2.10 cost per yard waste sticker that’s required the rest of the collection season. Residents must still pay for the bags and invest the effort of bagging leaves, but it does make for a more orderly collection process. (For more on the city’s leaf-collection policy, go to www.naperville.il.us/leafcollection.aspx.) There are also those who say rake and compost your leaves, or mow and mulch them back onto your lawn. To each his/her own.
We, like most of our neighbors, prefer the clean look that comes with removing them entirely. That means we’ll be back out there at least one more time, rakes and leaf blowers in hand, wrangling the tree droppings to our curbs yet again in anticipation of that final collection.
The days are far shorter now, the combined effects of fall and the end of daylight saving time having conspired to cut our lighted hours to preciously few. Though the unseasonably warm temps do offer some consolation, allowing for yard work and other activities deeper into the fall evening without the customary chill that one would expect in early November.
The Halloween lights and jack-o-lanterns are gone, soon to be replaced by Christmas lights and inflatable reindeer. Before you know it, it won’t be leaves we’re clearing from sidewalks and driveways, but several inches of snow instead.
Unless the kids beat us to it.
Rob Manker is a freelance writer who lives, works, parents in Naperville.
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