Leif in the Leaves

Once upon a time, he was a joyful baby relishing the leaves in the fall. He was our little explorer, toddling around in the silly striped overalls I sewed for him, typical 1970s garb, I guess. Once upon a time, we looked forward to his future. Little did we know that 32 years later, he would no longer be with us.

Once upon a time, I listened to the music he loved, and to him playing the guitar solos from those rock songs, and they were just songs. Now, I go to the neighborhood pool where the radio on the loudspeaker blares out classic rock that reminds me so of him it makes me sad.

Once upon a time, this little boy had a future.

I dreamed about him last night, not as a baby, but as a man, and I called him "Alex," and then asked him if it was still okay to call him that instead of Leif. He laughed and called me, "silly mommy." Just what he would have done in real life.

I miss him.

This photo was taken in October 1975 in the back yard of our old stone house. It no longer exists, either.

Thirty-five Years Ago - Leif at Nine Months - Manhattan, Kansas

This picture of Leif when he was nine months old, thirty-five years ago in October 1975, was taken in the backyard of the old stone house at 804 Moro Street in Manhattan, Kansas. It was a beautiful, warm, Indian summer day, and he was having a ball scuffling around in the leaves. Leif started walking at 10 months, so it was right about this time he was learning to navigate on two legs, though he also did plenty of crawling in the leaves. He looks so happy!

I remember that he was barefoot and so cute tippy-toeing around.

I have to smile when I see what he's wearing. Back in those days, we could actually save a significant amount of money by making our own clothes, unlike today when we have all these cheap clothes from Asia. I made a lot of the clothes for myself and my sons, and it was during a time when the styles and fabrics were very different than now, too. I didn't make the little t-shirt he's wearing. That was from Sears, but I did sew the overalls he has on, and even put on the gripper snaps, with a second set to make it possible for him to keep wearing it a little longer as he grew.

No one would probably be caught wearing such things these days, or putting them on their kids, certainly not stripes like those! It's amusing and fun to think of that now, and I enjoyed sewing. I did some crocheting and knitting, too. Knitting was not one of my specialties, but I did knit a "romper" for Leif and crocheted a winter cap and matching cardigan sweater.

This is another photo that was badly damaged by age, faded and spotted. It has such a wonderful smile I'm glad I could rescue it with PhotoShop.



Fall in Manhattan can be very beautiful, with all the leaves turning and falling, deep blue skies and wonderful sunsets. That was an especially good fall for us, for now our family was complete, with our two happy, healthy boys.

Boys Fall Clean Up Brigade - Japan 1982

Kids are amazing. If we parents had told them to go out and rake and clean up all the leaves on our end of the housing area, they would have whined and protested, and definitely not wanted to do it.

But something got them started on their own. I don't know which of the boys was the ringleader, or even why they decided to do it, but Peter A., Leif, Anil, Atul and a couple of other neighborhood boys decided to spend an afternoon of hard work in the woodsy area near our townhouses.

We lived at the farthest end of enclosed (fenced) and gated Sagamihara Family Housing Area, a facility for families with a member serving in the military at Camp Zama, which was about two miles away. In addition to housing, which consisted for the most part of row or town houses with some single family houses for upper ranks, the area had a club, child care center, movie theater, swimming pool, elementary school, commissary (grocery store for you civilians), racquet ball courts, Boy Scout hut, and probably more facilities I've forgotten.

Many of the townhouses, at least in our part of the housing area, were arranged around three sides of large grassy areas where kids played, with the fourth side on the street and parking area. Our end only had two sides with townhouses. The third side was a small wooded area that was an even better place to play at times. That's where all the leaves were coming from, and where they had piled up high.

My recollection is that this is the only time in the three years we lived there that the kids showed any interest in cleaning up the leaves or any initiative about doing it, but for some reason, they had a mission that day. Maybe they were going to do something special in that wooded area and needed to have it free of the carpet of leaves. If any of the boys (now all men, of course) who took part remembers whether there was some special reason, maybe if they see this blog they'll let me know.

Anil and Atul lived in the second set of townhouses, the one perpendicular to the street. Ours faced the street. Their delightful Indian family were our neighbors for the three years we were there, and they were good friends of Leif's from the start.

We stayed in contact with them for years after both our families left Japan, but we lost track of each other some years ago. Now we are back in contact, thanks to the internet, but it was with a heavy heart that I had to tell them of Leif's death.

It's hard to hear of the death of a treasured childhood friend, and I thank Anil for permission to post some of his thoughts and memories on this blog. He wrote to me that;

My memory of him remains that of a very unique, creative playmate who had the best Star Wars toys and probably the only Apple computer within a 50-mile radius of the base.

One memory I have was when my parents bought us a set of kites that were strung together in a daisy chain. Leif and I went to fly them on an extremely windy day. We had put together two spools of nylon and watched as we got to the end of the second reel. Leif and I held on to it as tight as possible, and the kite practically dragged us across the lawn before we let go, spool and all. The kite must have been over 500 feet high and drifted off into the horizon. We weren't sure whether we were angry at losing the kite or ecstatic that we'd launched it into the lower atmosphere!

How I wish I had photos of that adventure! I thank Anil for sharing it with me.

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In the fall 1982 photo, left to right: Atul, Peter A. (nearly 14, Anil (behind), Leif (age 7). Sagamihara Housing Area, Japan.

Peter Anthony & Leif Running Through Leaves in Tokyo - 1980

When I was a child, I never dreamed that I would be raising my family in far flung places like Germany, Japan, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, though I did dream of visiting those places. To my sons, the military life was all they knew, so moving to foreign countries didn't seem strange to them, though they certainly enjoyed learning all the new things and places.

This photo was taken in the fall in Tokyo, and the two boys were having a blast charging through the deep leaves on the sidewalk. Peter A. was almost 12 and Leif was a little over 5 and a half. Since they were six years apart, you'd expect a much greater difference in height, but since Leif was always so tall for his age (wearing clothes that Peter A. had worn just two years earlier!) they appeared to be much closer in age, and got along that way, too.

I no longer remember what outing we were on in Tokyo when this occurred. We went fairly often, almost always by train, unless we were taking a bus trip offered by the Camp Zama tours office. The boys liked to ride the train and it was always an adventure. Sometimes we went to visit a museum, or a temple. Sometimes we were going shopping. Most fun was the electronics district in Akihabara, and next was Shinjuku. Sometimes we were going to a festival, like the Yabusame exhibition and festival at one of the temples. Yabusame is archery and it is most impressive done on horseback.

Leif - Crawling in Fallen Leaves - October 1975 - Age 9 Months

In Kansas, where Leif was born, it's autumn and the leaves are turning colors and falling. Leif spent about 11 years of his life in Manhattan, Kansas in three different periods.

He was born there on January 28, 1975 and lived there in our old stone house until the summer of 1976, when we moved to Charlottesville, Virginia. This photo was taken during that first year.

We had about 33 trees in our large corner lot, and they produced prodigious amounts of leaves each fall, especially the giant oak tree near the side door that we persisted in calling the "back door" because it was the way out to the back yard, detached garage and parking area.

We were out raking up the carpet of leaves that was nearly three inches thick and Leif was tired of being in a backpack or high chair, so I put him down in the midst of the leaves to see what he would do.

Unfortunately, he couldn't talk yet at the tender age of 10 months, but I would have loved to hear what he thought of it. He crawled through them picking up his hands high as though to get them out of the deep mess.

Fall was a beautiful time in Manhattan. The town has so many trees that on some of the older streets in our part of town, it's like driving under a canopy that completely covers the street, like a tunnel of green, or, in the fall, a tunnel of color.

Of course, once the leaves fall it isn't so attractive any more, but during that balmy period known as Indian Summer, it's a lovely place.

Leif would be back in Manhattan when we moved there from Puerto Rico in the fall of 1992 when Peter W. was forced to retire from the army (he did not want to!) by the Congressional insistence on reducing the force levels after the first Gulf War. He finished high school there, just his senior year, and went to college there at Kansas State University until enlisting in the army in January 1998.

The last time Leif lived in Manhattan was May 2001 until March 2005, after he was medically retired from the army due to his asthma, and returned there to finish his college degree and work for Western Wireless, which was purchased by Alltel.

I have wonderful memories of fall, whether in Manhattan, Kansas; Charlottesville, Virginia; Germany; or Japan.