Mums. Cornstalks. Straw. Pumpkins. This is how October starts in the Hoover/Ensor household. We only have a couple of weeks left to get ready for 80,000 of Carthage’s closest friends and family to line the streets from our beautiful town square, down Grand, then east on Centennial, for Southwest Missouri’s Largest Parade.
Living on Grand Avenue is an awesome experience, but Maple Leaf is our street’s time to shine. Already the neighbors are sprucing up their homes, decorating front porches with beautiful pillows on their benches, fall wreaths on the doors, and arranging gorgeous fall displays in the yards. Front porches are being power washed, the yards are getting a little more attention, and Sandy Higgins and I are busy plotting how to outdo last year’s Carthage Tiger scarecrows with her top secret idea for this year. Everything is just a little “extra” on Grand in October.
While the outside of the homes get ready, inside there are also many things to do. Like most of my neighbors, we will have dozens of visitors in our home for the parade. Everyone is just a little friendlier and a little happier at Maple Leaf, so our home has to be a little more inviting than usual. The perfect fall scent has been picked for the wax burners in each room, the most delicious hand soap from that fancy store at the mall has been meticulously chosen for the bathrooms, and the fancy fall flavored coffee creamers have been added to the shopping list. I will make sure to get the hot chocolate and apple cider early, because in all my years on the parade route I have learned that if I wait too long the good kind will sell out fast. I have also learned that you never know how many people will come use your bathroom, so you better have extra toilet paper, just in case.
It seems like everyone comes home for Maple Leaf. It’s the chance to see people that you may only see once a year, and sometimes people you haven’t seen in decades. Everyone is just a little bit happier at Maple Leaf, and the town is a little friendlier. Maybe it’s the sense of family, the sense of community, the sense for some of “this is where I came from and where I will always belong.” Maybe it’s just because for that one day we are all Carthaginians, no matter where we are from or where we currently reside. No matter the reason, everyone is family at Maple Leaf.
