Writing Sprints Inspiration: Jenifer

If you missed last week’s episode, you missed a great one. You can watch the replay here.

As always, the ladies of the podcast created some great pieces of writing from this sprint prompt. This week, the prompt was: Autumn leaves. We really enjoyed Jenifer’s take on the prompt, and we think you will as well! Enjoy, and make sure you reach out to her to let her know you want her to finish this story!

Autumn Leaves

The brittle crunch of the leaves, long ago fallen from their original home but left unattended by the homeowners that lived in the “city” of the tiny town I grew up in will forever be a memory etched in my mind.

We had trees at my house at the edge of the township, but they weren’t as large. Daddy planted them when he and Mama moved in to the newly built 1970s ranch, so by the time I had reached nine years old, they weren’t much taller than our rooftop. The trees within the village limits were much older, and much bigger, thus they had many more leaves to shed. Plus, my Dad always kept his lawn swept, so there were never any dead, brown, crunchy leaves at our house to trapse through. 

So, that was one of the joys of trick or treating in town. The piles of leaves. Some houses it was like wading through snow, the piles were so high, but we didn’t mind. It may have slowed us a little, but we had little time to ponder that when there were so many houses to hit for candy before curfew.

When I think back, I’m still amazed that my mother, a usually protective parent, allowed us to roam freely every halloween. Maybe it was because we lived in such a small town that she knew everyone, giving her a sense of security. Or maybe its because it gave her an opportunity to spend an evening with her best friend Carol, free of husband and children, gabbing and snacking on candy while she passed out candy to children who approached her door with the magic three word phrase. 

After frantically racing from house to house, eventually the homeowners would start to turn off their lights, signalling that trick or treating was over. It was then that my brother and I would head to the community center where the Lions club had burn barrels set up. Free cider and donuts and hot dogs to roast were always in abundance at the community center. This is where my mom would meet up with us and take us home.

Always my mom. Never my dad. He always said he needed to stay home to pass out candy, should anyone happen by. No one ever did. Not in the country where we lived.

I think Daddy enjoyed Halloween just as much as my Ma did.

Jenifer Carll-Tong is the author of historical Christian romances. She is a graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication. Learn more about Jenifer and her books HERE or you can join the fun over at Jenifer’s Facebook group, Jenifer Carll-Tong’s C.I.R.C.L.E. of Readers. (Heads up…that’s where the giveaways happen.)