Huber

Funeral Home & Cremation Services

952-474-9595

Pediatric Rehabilitation Clinic.

Occupational Therapy.  Speech Therapy.

952-443-9888

Victoria’s Corner Bar.  Nightly Specials and Menus.  952-443-9944

Weinzierl

Jewelers

8 First Street in Waconia.  952-442-2885

MVT Excavating

No job is too small.  952-446-9341

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in the Victoria Gazette. 

Located at www.VictoriaGazette.com.

Specialized assisted living for those

with memory challenges. 

Victoria.  952-908-2215
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The Victoria

GAZETTE

October gave a party;

The leaves by hundreds came --

The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,

And leaves of every name.

The Sunshine spread a carpet,

And everything was grand,

Miss Weather led the dancing,

Professor Wind the band.

 

         I think of "October Party" every year when our leaves begin to arrive in colored costume, dancing above us in alluring fashion, and then dropping at our feet as the party winds down, leaving the stage so very empty.

         Allan's mother often recited to us this poem and other poetry she had read and memorized as a youngster growing up in rural South Dakota.  Vera was attracted to verse and literature for her entire life.  The author George Cooper wrote "October Party" in 1935, when Vera was already a young lady of 21.  I wonder if she heard poetry readings on the radio or checked out a book of poetry at the town's library.  It was most likely a library, as I know she frequented the Minneota Library her entire married life.

         Vera usually had a book to read at her home, lying near the couch, and she always brought a book to read when she came to visit us for a few days here in Victoria.  When I needed time to work on the Gazette, and the kids were in school, Vera simply picked up her book for company and conveniently and quietly disappeared. 

         I suspect it's true that our children's Grandma Orsen -- the former Miss Vera Stevenson -- was indeed a relative of Robert Louis Stevenson, a Scottish novelist and poet, and that a love for prose and poetry was her genetic disposition.  Among other works, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and A Child's Garden of Verses.

         When the topic of ancestry or nationality came up, the rest of us would cite Norwegian or Belgian, but Vera, who was a transplant to southwest Minnesota , always replied, "Mainly Scotch."

 

The Chestnuts came in yellow,

The Oaks in crimson dressed;

The lovely Misses Maple

In scarlet looked their best;

All balanced to their partners,

And gaily fluttered by;

The sight was like a rainbow

New fallen from the sky.

 

         There's a howling in the sky tonight as cool autumn winds blow through our trees and tell us winter is coming.  After the huge summer of 2012, I welcome the coolness and the color, even though it means the fading of another season.

         No distinct line separates one season from the other.  The happening resembles the turning of a page, a deliberate but very slow turning, and we keep reading until the very last word anticipates the turn, and then another array of thoughts and images is before us and we continue the book.

         Not so very long ago it was the season to tell made-up bedtime stories to our children.  It was the season for them to catch butterflies along Park Drive after a bike ride to the Dairy Queen.  It was the season to watch the next chapter of Little House on the Prairie together -- Monday nights at 7 o'clock.  It was the season to crawl under the stretchy afghans.

         Now it's the season of grandchildren and calisthenics by the light of the moon and the backyard firepit.  It's the season to roast marshmallows and find the Big Dipper.  Fortunately, it is also still the season to ride bikes together to the Dairy Queen, but now it's three generations pedaling away rather than two.

         Before the bike trail, when the railroad tracks and the trains were still part of the Victoria landscape, we had to cross Highway 5 two times -- very carefully -- in order to get safely to the DQ.  Our children were not allowed to cross Highway 5 without us until they were practically adults.  We certainly did not ride bikes on Highway 5 as some fools do today. 

         In any case, those railroad timbers didn't disappear from Victoria until 1981, and the railroad bed didn't become a trail immediately.  You perhaps know that we've been playing in our wonderful little neighborhood here by Carver Park since 1971.

 

Then in the rustic hollow,

At hide-and-seek they played,

The party closed at sundown,

And everybody stayed.

Professor Wind played louder;

They flew along the ground;

And then the party ended

In jolly "hands around."

October 2012

In-Town Auto Repair  952-443-2868

942-443-2078
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