He awoke, threw back the curtains, and greeted the new October morn.

�Ah, look at it, just look at it. Martha just look at it!� Pa said in a loud voice as Ma was shuffling around trying to get her arthritic hands to measure out the coffee for the pot. She would have rather slept for another couple hours, but Pa, oh her husband Paul, he was an early riser. �Just look at it Martha, look at it,� for he called her ma unless he really wanted her attention, then it was Martha, Martha Jayne Muddlehead, his Martha Jayne Muddlehead from over Stewartsville way. Funny he never liked anyone from Stewartsville for some unknown reason, but he sure did fall for her.

Finally ma came to the window and there on this October morn, the trees in and around their house were all full of fall colors, the two black walnuts over next to the road, they must be at least a hundred feet tall by now, and those three hickory trees, tall and thin, not to mention the dozen white oaks his grand dad had planted along the lane there between the garden and the fence. But the seven maples, oh they were in their glory, they were great. �Look pa, look out toward the pine patch, see it see it?� She pointed and sure enough there were small sporadic and erratic flakes of lily-white snow beginning to fall.

Pa slide his arm around his wife of 56 years and then kissed her head as he squeezed her and they just stood, stood there watching, and of course thinking , thinking of the 51 years they had lived here, the 51 years of raising six children, and now of the few years they had remaining on a great life. A life of love, hardships, ups and downs but their lives. �Ma, did I ever tell you I love you?�

�Remember the first winter here, remember the first snow we had?� She would never forget it for they had three small children, one a year, and they all had the mumps and there came an early snow. �We were holed up here for eight days, and you couldn�t get to town to work, so we knew those eight days of pay were gone?�

�But you made a big pot of soup, and I got three rabbits and we had rabbit stew and vegetable soup and that was when I went out to the shed and came up with my invention, my invention which has made our lives so much softer and better?�

The coffee was perking hard so they finally adjourned to the kitchen table as the white flakes began to get thicker and the ground began to take on a light tint.

As Martha put the toast on the table, the old fashioned toast, store bought light bread, but buttered and toasted in the oven of that old kitchen range. Toast, which with damson preserves with a little rhubarb in it, along with a cup of coffee was a fine breakfast. �Did I ever tell you, I am the luckiest woman in the world for having you as mine? And then they ate their breakfast, both with large smiles as they remembered the days of your.

�But it is a great October morn,� pa said as he poured them a little more coffee to warm their cups.

 

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