The game is on. How fast can you rake the leaves until the next wind and more leaves fall? I can never keep up and then I just wait until all the leaves are off the branches. The summer annuals are struggling to bloom and not be replaced by mums. Mother Nature at her finest.

Happy Birthday to all who celebrated their day this past week. Big balloons go out to Matheus Sandoval, who celebrated on Oct. 15; Arthur Avansini and Wolfgang Goff on Oct. 17; John Curelli on Oct. 18; Lara Hathaway and Maya Wallace on Oct. 20; and to Sawyer Grady, who celebrates on Oct. 21.

This past weekend was my 50th class reunion. First, I am still in denial that it has been 50 years. Second, I spent a lot of time with horses. Yes, I had my friends outside of school but I always felt it was the horse life that I lived. Boy, was I wrong.

We met for a casual gathering at the P.A. Club in Oak Bluffs. I looked for familiar faces and was taken back to 1972. It was so great to see friends I had not seen in years and it seemed like we picked up where we left off.

On Saturday night we were at the American Legion in Vineyard Haven. The turnout was bigger than I thought. We all talked and caught up, tried to figure out who had changed so much, and who we did not recognize — only to laugh when we figured out who the mystery person was. We met spouses and filled them in on some teenage antics.

We all enjoyed our reunion. The food was good; the D.J. played our ‘70s music; we danced; we hugged; and we finally showed ourselves as we are now and as we were 50 years younger when we were just starting out at 10 p.m. Now we were going home to our jammies at 10 p.m.

We were sad to see the weekend end but happy that it happened. Thank you to the hard-working committee that made it happen.

Congratulations to all the Derby winners. I reported a few weeks ago about Sandy Fisher and Jeff Komarinetz, who rigged a chair on the back of their truck so that Holly Mercier, who has multiple sclerosis, to do the thing she loves which is fishing. They took her out many times throughout the Derby.

Their kindness did not go unnoticed, and they were rewarded with the Sportsmanship award. My dad use to tell us he could catch the biggest fish but to win the Sportsmanship award was far more important. Congratulations to all.

Have a great week and keep the home candles burning.