Flyer

Issue date: 10/28/05 Section: Opinions

Ever since I can remember, fall has
been my favorite time of year. Fall meant
so many things to me as a child: football
games, cool breezes, Thanksgiving, and
leaves. Watching the gorgeous ambers,
crimsons, and golds fall from the trees
always signifi ed fall was here. The smell
of burning leaves drifted lazily through
my house as I watched the Bears game
with mom and dad. My brother and I
would eagerly volunteer to rake leaves into
colossal mounds the size of pyramids, just
to fl ing our small bodies into them shouting
with a joy only children know and fall can
bring.

Nowadays, I don't get fall. The seasons
here on campus go from spring to summer
to winter. Without an offi cial football team
here at school, being gone for Thanksgiving,
and the leaves being practically snatched
off the trees before they hit the ground,
my fall has been diminished to a few cool
breezes.

Maybe this shouldn't bother me, but the
fact remains, it does. Lewis University is
full of gorgeous foliage. Why do we rush
to pick the leaves up off the ground? The
leaves are an integral part of that beauty.
True, they smell a little after a good rain, but
so what? Personally, I fi nd the obnoxiously
loud sounds of the leaf blowers to be much
more of a disturbance than that genuine fall
smell.

But seriously, why is maintenance
required to be on the green at the crack of
dawn hunting out any leaves threatening to
fall? The leaves can cause a few problems.
First of all they can cause people to slip and
fall if they crowd the walkways. Another
problem is the smell of decomposing
leaves, which is unpleasant to some. The
crunching of leaves under one's feet can
cause some people to cringe.

So then why keep them? Studies have
been done to prove that people's moods
are affected by the season. Some people
function on a 60-day cycle of mood swings.
Fall is the last season before things become

Continued...

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