Days of Honey Brown and Sugar Beets

I saw a tree today. . . And while we do have the normal amount of trees here in my state, this one was different. Majestic. Awesome with leaves and folds and folds of colors. We do get fall colors here, but not like this. Not like Michigan. So, I was driving to the MacDonald’s for some pancakes WITHOUT SYRUP for my nephew and I saw that tree and it just took me back. Instantly.

I lived in Michigan for awhile, Saginaw to be exact, working for this funky little children’s touring theatre and living on a street that was in itself a reality show gone bad. (redundant. I know.) This group of actors, thrown together and force fed into each others lives, became a family. I remember making care packages for my friends back home and in other places and I used the fallen foliage to pack them with. I’d never seen such beauty.

There was craziness and there was drama and tears and humiliation and love sweet love by the wee fist-full in this family. There were also porch gatherings that erupted into full blown productions of Rent, or Pink Floyd, or the Devil Went Down to Georgia or swing dancing. YES. we thought we could dance!Honey Brown beer was my drink of choice if it was payday and the sick, sweet, fermented smell from the sugar beet factory mingled in with the waves of cigarette smoke for our signature fragrance.

This time of year, always brings it back for me with such a force. I wonder about us…all scattered around the country living our lives. There was a boy.( insert eyeroll and drolly say, Honey when is there not) and I occasionally think about him…but there were others, special, special others and I wonder if they wonder. I keep in touch with the two soulmates of mine I met there…and I email a few others on a scarce basis.

I don’t smoke like that anymore. It’s a constant battle that I win daily and lose monthly. I don’t listen to Pink Floyd or Charlie Daniels anymore and I haven’t tasted a Honey Brown since the turn of the millennium.

I guess it’s funny what we leave behind, and what can bring it back again.

That was an amazing tree.