The Grapevine

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AUTUMN...STILL GOING STRONG!
One of Our Sunrise Residents Shares What Autumn Means to a Teacher.

Autumn. The very word takes me back to my teaching days at a small rural school In New Jersey. Yes, within the lifetime of many of us there were small rural schools in New Jersey.

For me, my more than three decades of teaching left me with the enduring feeling that the year begins with the month of September. As I would look from my classroom in late September and October there would be a blaze of red and gold from the trees outside my classroom window. I could understand why many students, gazing at the same scene, might wish they could go out on such a glorious day instead of being confronted by the intricacies of the Compromise of 1850, or the difficulties of the Electoral College, or, in Language Arts, how to diagram a direct object.

Older readers may well recall trying to figure out where the predicate nominative fit into a diagram. Was ability to diagram of any value? That I cannot answer except to point out that understanding the diagram would assure one of knowing whether to use “who” or “whom.”

As I would be as enthralled by the beauty of the outdoors as were my students, I might reflect upon the story of the philosophy professor at one of the Ivy League schools who, one day in April, suddenly announced to his class, “Gentlemen, it is spring, and with that pronouncement walked out of the classroom, never to return. I must confess that such thoughts would, on such occasions, cross my mind.

Today, many years after my retirement from teaching, I still regard September and October the beginning of the year. For me January 1^st is just another bleak winter’s day.

Autumn, on the other hand, is a Technicolor time, a musical with song and dance of Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. January is a black and white time, a film noir with Robert Mitchum stalking along dark, foggy streets, obviously up to no good. No joy at such a time and such a scene.

Thus it is that for me the new year begins on the first day of September. Autumn has but one down side. The poet observed that, "If Winter comes can Spring be far behind?" Unfortunately for some of us, he might well have written, "If Autumn comes can Winter be far behind"?

THE 2011 SUNRISE COMMUNITY YARD SALE

Joe got this great picture of our Sunrise Lake Bald Eagle. He has

been on Sunrise Lake for a while say the residents on the lake. He

is just beautiful. SALLY CRAPANZANO

~

OUR FIRST BEAR

We recently purchased a house in Sunrise Lakes and have been coming up every weekend to clean up the place and start moving our stuff in. This particular Saturday was a nice one, and my little brothers and I were outside, playing baseball with a kid from the development. It was the first day in months - we took advantage of it and hit the ball hard, running, playing ball, going crazy in our new big yard. We played for an hour or so before my parents told us to pack it in and we started driving back to New York (Long Island) at around 6:30. Now, you'd have to understand a little about my family in order to really understand where I’m coming from. My mother was born and raised in NY, doesn't like change, and we all swore that she'd flip out worst when she first saw a bear.

My father and I are funny, sarcastic, dramatic, go-with-the-flow kind of people. I love wildlife and animals in general and throughout the two years we looked to buy a house I've complained about how I haven’t seen a bear yet. Our real estate agent and his secretary both laughed and told me not to worry, that when I was finally here I'd see one. I have two little brothers, DJ, whose 10, and Dylan, who’s 8. They're very loud, dramatic, and hyper yet they burn out quickly. After we left, we drove for 15 minutes - a half an hour and the boys were asleep, my dachshund in my arms asleep, I was drifting off, my grandmother and my mother chatting about events earlier that day, and finally, my father staring lazily out the window. My father hurt his back/ribs and was home from work to heal.

We drove past Birchwood Lakes, and my grandmother remarked how she knew there were a lot of bears in the development from years ago. About two minutes later, my father's eyes bulged out of his head; he sat up straight and leaned back as if to try to see something as my mother kept driving. A split second later, he screamed : "OH MY GOD DONNA TURN THE CAR AROUND, OH MY GOD DONNA YOU GOT TO TURN THE CAR AROUND THERES A BEAR - A BIG, BIG BEAR OH MY GOD DONNA TURN AROUND" Meanwhile, there’s a cop behind us. My mother kept telling him "Donald I can't turn back there’s a cop behind us - are you sure there was a bear?!?" My father screamed "DONNA, OH MY GOD DONNA IT WAS BIG, IT WAS BLACK, AND IT WAS MOVING." He clutched his chest "DONNA, DONNA, TURN THE CAR AROUND YOU NEED TO SEE THIS BEAR".

My mother turned around, my father still screaming and ranting on about his bear. The cop didn't follow us. We were a good mile down from where my father saw the bear, but he still kept carrying on "OH MY GOD - BIG BEAR DONNA I SAW A BIG BEAR “My mother kept asking is he was sure and where the bear was and he kept saying "DONNA, IT WAS BIG, BLACK, AND WALKING." or "YOU CANT MISS SOMETHING LIKE THAT."We finally found the bear, walking behind a deli, and we pulled into the parking lot. By this time, my brother's eyes were bulging out of their heads, I was screaming, my mother was screaming, my father was yelling "SEE I TOLD YOU I SAW A BIG BEAR OH MY GOD ITS A BIG BEAR" and my grandmother stayed really quiet.

We watched as the bear walked behind the deli, and we all stayed quiet for a minute. "Get out of the car and take a picture" my mother said to my father. "What?! You get out of the car!" Then he took a deep breath, took my camera, and got out of the car to the back of the deli. My mom went to try to scare him from behind. She then came back and asked if we wanted to see a bear. I shoved Cassie, my Weiner dog, over to my grandmother and got out of the car. I took my camera from my father, and took tons of pictures. The owners came out then, and told us that the same bear goes to eat there every night out of their dumpster at around 7. Now, whenever we become friendly with someone, and I ask if they've seen a bear lately, they tell us the first story off of their head. My father gladly tells of our first bear, and we show each other pictures. "I just wonder" my father said one day "what you all would have done if I had gone back there with a camera and came back screaming and running with that big jalopy at my heels....?"

By Laura Flynn

(Editor-Laura is one of our young aspiring writers-others are welcome to contribute)