“The rakes are outside by the back door,” Mom reminded my sister and I. I grabbed my red fleece jacket, slipped it on and headed out the back door. A cool breeze blew so I zipped up and pulled on my hood. As I looked up, the sky was a clear blue but spotted with yellow, red, and orange falling leaves. I grabbed a rake and headed to the middle of the backyard. In each direction stood trees, so many trees. As I looked up, I noticed mostly bare branches. And all around my feet were crunchy colorful leaves. It was October and my weekend chore was to rake the leaves into piles so my mom could more easily transport them on a blanket to the street curb for pickup.
“I’m raking this part, ” my sister, Cathi said and off she went to work on the left side of the backyard.
Soon I had made three piles of leaves. As I looked back, I started to see grassy areas without leaves that looked more like hallways. So I started raking another “hallway” and then a larger, square space that felt like a room.
“Let’s call this the Throne Room,” I yelled to Cathi.
“What?” she questioned.
“Come walk down the Royal Road, cross the bridge over the moat and enter the Throne Room!” I suggested.
“Great Idea!” and she ran over, entered the Throne Room and started making another hallway by raking away leaves. After clearing another square space, she announced, “This can be the Dungeon!”
“We need a Banquet Room,” I suggested and I moved to another area of the backyard and got to work.
After about an hour, we had created an entire Royal Castle! The queen and her princess carried their royal scepters and strolled from room to room by traveling along the connecting green, lawned floor.
“Girls, great job!” a voice interrupted the pageantry. “I bet we can get all these leaves to the curb in no time,” mom announced.
“Can we keep them here for another day, please?” the two Royal subjects pleaded.
“Only if I am invited to the Royal Ball?” mom stated with a wink.
All three subjects continued playing in the raked backyard.
And lived happily ever after!
Writing Stories by Sally 
Your magical memory is a tribute to the joys and creative juices of childhood. Hurrah for play! Something about those crunchy leaves —
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We used to do that! I haven’t thought of that in decades. thanks for transporting me back to your childhood, and mine.
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Isn’t it wonderful how our childish selves found a way to make even the mundane magical? Wish we still had that capacity!
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What a great mentor text to use with your students! I hope you are sharing it, as you might inspire your writers as well as your rakers!
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I did share it today!! We just launched Kidblog and I added it there so my students could read it, comment and be inspired to write their SOL to our class kidblog! And who knows. Some may help raking now too!!
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There’s nothing like the leaves in Arlington. Great infusion of imagination!
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What a wonderful memory, Sally! You wrote about it so beautifully, I was right there in the yard with you, strolling through your castle!
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so I read your more recent entry first and then this. The tone difference is remarkable. shifting perspective makes such a great difference. i love the joy in this one and how play transforms a job into a royal court.
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