Pearl River Community College's award winning literary magazine

Special Edition—Spring-Summer 1998

Essay Section

The Squirrels of Autumn

by Lowell G. Erwin

Last week one of my children came to visit for a few days, bringing three of my grandchildren with her. The second morning they were there, my granddaughter Brittany awoke early and came to the kitchen where I was making my morning coffee.

Brittany said to me, "Grandpa I really like your house. It's so big and has so many nice rooms. Do you like it too?"

I told her, "I certainly do. What I like best though is not the rooms and the size, but the squirrels in the yard."

"Will you show me the squirrels Grandpa?" She asked me.

We walked through the backdoor and stood facing the big live oak tree. I started pointing out and naming the squirrels as they played, chasing each other up and down and around the limbs. Then my six year old granddaughter asked the question that turned my mind to thoughts of the past.

"Grandpa, why do you have so many squirrels and we have none?"

I told her, "Brittany, it took years to get these squirrels. I didn't get them all at once."

"Tell me how you got them, Grandpa. I want some too."

I thought for a minute and replied, "Many years ago I had been saving money for a long time to buy a new car. Finally I had the money and knew which car I wanted. It was a sporty looking little car with lots of fancy chrome. I met your grandmother though and I wanted her even more. So instead of buying the car, I made a down payment on a home and asked her to marry me. I didn't know it then, but I was also buying my very first squirrel. Grandma and I started a bank account so we could buy our children from the doctor. That gained us another squirrel. We started bank accounts for other reasons later. We started savings accounts for college for our children. Some accounts were just for saving. Each time, even though we couldn't see them, we were buying squirrels too. There was a time then, as your mother and your aunts and uncle were growing up when we could not buy many squirrels. We needed all our money for raising children. Then the company where I worked so many years, came up with something new called a 401-k plan. I joined it, and this bought us a whole tree full of squirrels. Your mother was about ten years old then. Some of the squirrels we bought with money from vacations we never took. Others we bought when we saved money by skipping things we wanted. We have been buying squirrels for many years."

"Grandpa, I think you have been telling me one of your stories."

I laughed and told her, "I have, but when you get older you will know it is a true story. Now in my autumn time I am free to enjoy all the squirrels I bought during the summer. And as winter approaches I enjoy them even more."

"I think you are being silly Grandpa. This is springtime, but I love you anyway."

"I love you too Brittany. Do you see that squirrel up on the very top limb? His name is 'Lucky.' Some day I want you to have him."