the smell of burning leaves

[oldertruckguy-9225]

How many of us can remember the unique, incredible smell of fall.. burning leaves. To me it is one of those truly magical, singular smells that instantly returns me to my childhood. The fall ritual  of burning a pile of leaves was almost always accompanied by the ritual of a radio tuned into the play by play of the world series. Neighbors would stand around the piles with a cold beer or glass of tea, listening to the ball game, talk and visit. I could earn $2.00 maybe $3.00 dollars a yard racking leaves. Big money back then. I am on my deck with  a cold beer after talking with my sister who lives back in rural southern Illinois. She and her family and neighbors are burning leaves. Pleasant memories......life is good.

[pfunk]

I've lived in Denver all my life...we never burned leaves here. Thus, the memory eludes me. Lots of raking and bagging, though! 

[Bravo1]

35 minutes ago, pfunk said:

I've lived in Denver all my life...we never burned leaves here. Thus, the memory eludes me. Lots of raking and bagging, though! 

We used to burn our trash, tree trimmings and leaves in Denver...  that's what all the little brick burners are in the backyards of homes in Parkhill

Edited October 8, 2020 by Bravo1

[sb1212]

We also had concrete recepticals for burning trash in the backyard in Arvada in the 60s. I tell my adult kids that and they think I grew up on Mars.  I don't, however,  recall burning leaves on the property, although I know we threw dang near everything in the burner. One of my chores was to clean it out weekly. Good times....

[Seeker5280]

I grew up in the Springs. We had the concrete incinerator in th back yard, . After I grew up my mom asked me to remove it. I crushed it with a sledgehammer, Kinda reminds about a long time ago. Things were simple.then.

[ilovewomen]

Back in the 50’s & 60’s we used to burn everything in the backyard incinerators. I don’t remember what we used to do with the tin cans...too many years ago.
 

I believe it was around 1968/1969 when backyard incinerators were banned in Denver and Denver started trash pickup.

[Alex Majors]

I can remember the smell of burning leaves. They put off a lot of smoke. It seems like a lifetime ago. My chore was to burn the trash about every night.  Where I lived it was a 55 gallon barrel, with holes punched into the bottom sides. Everything went into the barrel and was burned. Since we lived in the country, the ashes just got dumped into a ditch on the property. We did have burn piles of limbs that came down by themselves or storms. We burned off gardens and  fields. We could burn whenever we wanted. Now a small backyard fire pit is all we are allowed.

[John335]

On 08/10/2020 at 3:49 AM, oldertruckguy-9225 said:

How many of us can remember the unique, incredible smell of fall.. burning leaves. To me it is one of those truly magical, singular smells that instantly returns me to my childhood. The fall ritual  of burning a pile of leaves was almost always accompanied by the ritual of a radio tuned into the play by play of the world series. Neighbors would stand around the piles with a cold beer or glass of tea, listening to the ball game, talk and visit. I could earn $2.00 maybe $3.00 dollars a yard racking leaves. Big money back then. I am on my deck with  a cold beer after talking with my sister who lives back in rural southern Illinois. She and her family and neighbors are burning leaves. Pleasant memories......life is good.

Even Its truly magical for me one of my favourite smells of burning leaves and mud in the rain 

Edited October 19, 2020 by John335