October Bonfire

We had a bonfire on Saturday night in the back yard. About 45 friends came, some with their children and some with their grandchildren - many in Halloween costumes (the kids, that is). The weather had been iffy all day, spitting rain and even snow for most of the afternoon. But at about 6 PM, an hour before the fire was to start, the sun broke through briefly on the western horizon giving us a great sunset. The clouds quickly rolled back in, but there was no more rain or snow for the rest of the night.

Lori did a great job of setting things up. We had tables on the lawn with lots of food and drink. She ran Halloween lights in the trees and put candles everywhere. And she made a path of paper bag lanterns on the lawn that led from the field next door where everyone parked into the back of our house where we congregated.

Our friends, John, Colleen and Emily showed up first and helped with final preparations. I wanted to have the fire going when people arrived, so John and I lit it at about 6:45. It was a little slow starting, but once it caught, the 10' pile of brush, lumber and palettes really blazed, spraying sparks high above the surrounding tree tops. The flames themselves must have been 20' tall. It was awesome and we all got a kick out of watching it - for about 20 minutes, that is. After that, the pyre settled down and threatened to expire, even before the party started.

John and I began pulling large pieces of logs out of the brush pile in the woods behind our house. The stuff was wet because we've had a lot of rain over the past month. But it burned once it sat on the fire for a while. Getting to the stuff and pulling it out was a bit of a challenge in the dark, but we hauled out enough to keep the fire going for a couple of hours.

People filtered in all night, many of whom we hadn't seen in a while and some who'd never been to our house before. The weather was just cold enough to make you sit close to the fire to stay warm. Everyone gathered around it in groups some sticking with the people they knew, others venturing into unknown social circles. The snacks that Lori set out were mostly finger-food, but there were a couple of hot dishes as well. Hot cider was the second-most popular beverage with beer being the clear favorite.

Over the course of the evening, I made a number of sojourns back to the woods for more fuel, oftentimes with help from one of the guys. The fire burned well into the night and the last guests left around 11 or 11:30. Lori and I sat around the fire until close to midnight before heading in, leaving the food, tables and everything else right where it was.

I was surprised to find the flames still active on Sunday morning when we finally rolled out of bed. Lori got some coffee and I threw more wood on the fire and it picked right up. The sun was out and it must have been about 60 degrees by 9 AM. We spent the day picking up and doing stuff around the house, stopping once in a while to share a story of something we had seen or heard from someone the night before. It was a great weekend.