November 12th, 2013

Leaf Raking

by Brian Walker, Greg Walker and Chance Browne

There was a time when the sound of leaf blowers wasn’t constant during the fall season.  I remember raking leaves into piles on canvas tarps and dragging them to the driveway where my father burned them.  It is against the law to burn leaves without a permit in most towns now.  On the rare occasions when I do smell burning leaves, it makes me nostalgic for autumns long ago.

In this vintage Sunday page, raking is still a new experience for Ditto and he offers to help his father.

Hi and Lois Sunday page, October 23, 1966.

As I got older, I learned to dread the chore of raking leaves.  Every fall, my father would make me spend a few hours on Saturdays working in the yard.  I couldn’t wait to get away to join my friends, who were playing touch football or hanging out in town (this was before shopping malls).

Chip feels the same way and objects vociferously whenever Hi tells him to rake leaves.  In this episode from 2001, he gets poetic while goofing off (like his uncle Beetle) and Hi responds with a verse of his own.

Hi and Lois Sunday page, October 14, 2001.

Although I still mow my own lawn, I now pay someone to do my leaves every fall.  Coming home from work to a freshly blown yard always makes me smile.  It’s worth every dollar.

We hope you have enjoyed this special Fall Foliage series.  There are many more of these seasonal strips in our archives, so we will probably make this an annual tradition.  Stay tooned.

– Brian Walker