Autumn Leaves Addendum

Contemporary History 4 -Autumn Leaves Addendum

On October 14, 2018, I posted “Autumn Leaves”. Quite a few of you have enjoyed it, well, “enjoyed it” might be a bit too strong. Let’s just say quite a few of you have read it. It began by telling the story about my friend Bernice and her leaves, eventually getting around to MY leaves in Drums. Oddly enough, and totally by coincidence, about the same time I was posting that post I received a package from Bernice. It was a book, The Last Breed, by the Jamestown, North Dakota author, Louis L’Amour.

If it had not had her return address on the package, I’d not have known it was from her. No letter, card, nothing. Nothing, that is, until I opened the book. Scattered throughout the book are leaf-shaped stickers; if I found them all, 34 to be exact. Upon closer examination, one notices that on most of the pages with a sticker, there is the word “leaf” or “leaves” underlined as can be seen in the image below. Now if you read closely, you’ll notice there is a “leaves” not underlined, sixth paragraph down. Perhaps she missed it or perhaps she chose NOT to point it out because, as you can see, it is referring to “dead leaves”.

 

Six of the 34 leaves in the book are not associated with the word “leaf” or “leaves”. They are just added for excitement, I suppose; five inside the book and one stuck snugly on the back.

By the way, as an aside, one of the leaf stickers, the one on page 176, was of HERBAL TEA leaves! When I read the sentence in which the word “leaf” was underlined, the use of that specific sticker made more sense. Bernice wasn’t just running out of stickers and turning to any she could find, the sentence reads, “On the side of the…dish…, he saw a tea leaf.” Nothing about it being “herbal” tea in the story but one has to make do with the resources one has at hand, I suppose.

Now the L’Amour’s story isn’t about leaves. It’s about an Air Force Major whose plane is downed in Siberia. The Major, Major Joe Mack, after escaping from his Siberian Prison Camp, calls “upon the ancient skills of his Indian forebears to survive the vast Siberian wilderness” as he makes his way back to the U.S., or at least that’s what it says on the back of the book – I haven’t read it yet, just paged through it looking for leaves. 

On page 1, I finally found a note (page 1 is actually the sixth page in, 11^th if counted front and back). I almost missed it. No leaves there! It reads, “10 – 2018 To Ron, My favorite Louis book and there are leaves, where he wrote leaves. Enjoy. Blessings, Bernice”.

I got a good laugh from that! Shaking my head in amazement, I placed the book in a place of honor on the Living-room Bookshelf. 

Then on October 25, 2018, another package appeared in my mailbox, this time a large manila envelope. Same return address. “Bernice! You already SENT me my 2018 leaves!” I thought as I re-crossed Butler Drive, dodging cars on my way back to the house from my mailbox. This package contained a report, of sorts, about Bernice’s 85^th birthday party held August 18^th in Bismarck, ND.

I’d been invited but it was a bit too far to go, Pennsylvania to North Dakota, unfortunately - although Bernice says in her note that her friend, Maxine, the one who organized the party, and whom she represents as being sometimes a tad silly, had “expected me to fly in on a leaf”. Truth be told, I considered it! Although if I had, I probably would have used a more conventional mode of travel such as Delta or American Airways.

Below is a photo of what I missed! Bernice says the food was catered. Of course, the hotel provided breakfast as well as the conference room where the party was held, complimentary. Only right since Bernice’s party filled quite a few of the hotel’s lodging rooms!

The decorations were `a la Maxine. The pieces hanging down from the pennant line are words, A to Z, that the decorator (Maxine) said were words that described Bernice. For example, Bernice reported the W’s included “wacky” and “wonderful”. “Most were good!” she adds.

BTW, in this party photo, that’s Bernice in the chair, back to the camera, red jacket, white hair. Since you need permission to post people’s photos on the web, and I don’t have said permission, I’ve blurred those faces that could be clearly seen. So, no, it is not your eyes or a bad photo.  

She also sent me my copy of a page from her scrapbook. It tells the story about us and our leaves. She and I will have to argue about some of the details, however. She suggests the collecting of the leaves occurred on their last trip to D.C. My memory is that is was on their first, and each thereafter. She also suggests the first leaves I sent were sent a few years later. My memory is that I sent some with my first thank you note but then didn’t send more until a few years later. Although she may be right on both points, she usually is right, I like my version better.

Her scrapbook page also mentions a trip my wife, Phyllis; son, Philip; and I made in 2013 to visit her in North Dakota. She is right about that! We had a great time and she made sure we saw all the sights to see including the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center in Washburn, ND.

In fact, here we are! Bernice and I are the two smaller folks standing in front. I believe that’s Lewis, or maybe Clark, kicking me in the rear while they talk to one of their Indian friends. We are all standing in front of the Center. As you can see, it was a beautiful day, in many more ways than one.

And with that we should be up to date on the Bernice Autumn Leaves story. However, this “addendum” to my previous post did give me another opportunity to wish my friend, Bernice, A Happy Birthday for this year and many more yet to come.