Last weekend, it was three-year-old grandson Russell’s turn to press his hand into a shallow, leaf-shaped bowl of wet cement. Twenty-four hours later, he walked beside us as we ceremoniously carried his new masterpiece to the base of the dogwood tree we’d planted shortly after his birth.
This rite of passage would have gone smoothly if Russell hadn’t strolled past his sister’s tree, also a dogwood. She is two years older, and therefore her tree is two years bigger. This explanation did not calm him down.
“But look,” I said in my best good witch voice, pointing to three red leaves directly above his head, “only your tree knows that it is autumn.”
It didn’t get the reaction I wanted, but I was happy nonetheless. At that moment, I had never felt more like my mother.
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Frozen hair, autumn leaves and a memory
Janey Schultz loved fall so much that in October 1978, she allowed me to put a sprig of fall leaves in her lacquered hair helmet and then smiled for a photograph. History was made.
My parents were visiting me at Kent State, where I was studying journalism and almost always had a 35mm camera with me. It was their first visit to campus since the day they dropped me off at my dorm a year earlier. Dad waited until the leaves were in full color to make the hour-long drive, because that was one of the things he always did for Mom.
Every fall during my childhood, my parents would pack us kids into the family car for our annual drive across the state line to Western Pennsylvania to “see the colors.”
“What do you see, what do the colors do?” my little brother asked, just once.
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To truly appreciate this moment in October 1978, you have to know the story of my mother’s hair.
Every week my mother came home from the hairdresser and smeared so much Aqua Net into her hair that her beehive hairstyle and later her cloud of curly hair became as impenetrable as a bank vault.
One summer, Mom and I played on the same softball team (which I don’t recommend) and she became famous around the area for sliding into home and hitting her beehive shape back on her head with a single uppercut. I became known as the player whose mom did that.
CONNIE SCHULTZ: Read more columns by USA TODAY columnist
Aside from her steel afro comb and the occasional butterfly pins that her hairdresser Gary would use, nothing was allowed to go into Mama’s hair, but only in the spring. And yet, on that fateful day in October 1978, there she was, letting me put that sprig of autumn leaves in her hair and then smiling at the camera.
She did this despite my father’s opposition, which I now understand was probably the reason why. It is still one of my favorite photos of her.
Years after her death, I tried to recreate my mother’s photo, but my teased hair couldn’t support the weight of the tree bark. I looked like the neighbor who makes passersby smile nervously as they dial 911.
Signs of hope as autumn approaches?
Last year, we had an autumn like no other because of this pandemic. After a brief and glorious decline in infections and deaths in early summer, the Delta variant is now filling hospitals with mostly unvaccinated people. The death toll in the U.S. is rising again; as of this week, the total is over 680,000. Such a sad development, and largely so preventable.
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Still, as we enter this second COVID-19 autumn, we have reason to be hopeful. In a recent interview with ABC’s “The Week,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, said children ages 5 to 11 would soon be eligible for vaccination.
“At some point in the next few weeks, when October comes,” Fauci said, “we will see that there is enough data on the vaccines for children to be able to demonstrate their safety and immunogenicity.”
Will this happen in time for Halloween? We don’t know, but it gives me hope for the eventual return of hundreds of parents driving to our part of Cleveland to give their costumed children a night of safe fun.
Remember when the biggest crisis on Halloween was whether kids who weren’t from your neighborhood should get a single piece of your candy?
Boy, those were the days.
Here in Northeast Ohio, the leaves are starting to change. I don’t think I’ll ever see a golden oak or a fiery red maple without thinking of my mother. For that, I’m thankful.
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Fauci’s announcement made me think of her, too. My mom was a nursing assistant and she would have been so excited to learn that younger children will soon be safe from COVID-19.
Our 13-year-old Clayton was the first of our eight grandchildren to be vaccinated, and four more will be vaccinated in the next round.
I’m thinking of you again, Mom. I wish you were here when the fall will be the most beautiful we’ve ever seen.
USA TODAY columnist Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize winner and her novel “The Daughters of Erietown” is a New York Times bestseller. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter: @ConnieSchultz
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID vaccine for kids provides cause for optimism this fall season
