Maple Grove's Only Newspaper of Record—Vol. 1 No. 26—Edited by Mr. Ellison, Town Archivist & Historian
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
The maples turned this week. They turned all at once, as they do every October, and this newspaper reports it every October as though it had never happened before. Red on the town square. Orange down the length of Park Avenue. A yellow on some streets so strong that on a gray morning the street appears to be lit from underneath. A town named for its maples is entitled to make a fuss about them once a year, and this editor intends to.
By Wednesday the leaves were coming down, and the village divided, as it does every fall, into three parties: those who rake, those who blow, and those who run the mower over the whole business and call it mulch. Each party regards the other two as a failure of character. The blowers say the rakers are living in the past. The rakers say the blowers are moving the leaves into the neighbor's yard and calling it finished. The mulchers say nothing, because they were done by ten o'clock Saturday and went inside. This editor rakes. He declines to say more.
The Farmers Market on the square was, on Saturday, very nearly all apples. McIntosh, Cortland, Honeycrisp, and a few early bushels of the Northern Spy, which the older residents of the township will tell you is the only pie apple and which the younger residents have stopped arguing about. Mrs. McGregor's apple pies were gone by twenty past nine. Several ladies who arrived at half past were told the time. They already knew it.
For most of its history, Maple Grove's October smelled of burning leaves. Officially, it has not smelled of them since 1971. Unofficially, it did for about forty minutes on Tuesday afternoon, in one back yard, and the particulars are recorded in the proper section.
📜 POLICE BLOTTER
MAPLE GROVE POLICE DEPARTMENT—INCIDENT REPORT
Reporting Officer: Officer Wilson Week of: October 3-9
A Residential Back Yard—Reported Structure Fire. Reported by Officer Markle. At approximately 4:40 p.m. Tuesday, a motorist reported heavy smoke rising from behind a house and stated that the house was on fire. The Maple Grove Volunteer Fire Department responded with one engine and six volunteers, Officer Markle assisting. The house was not on fire. The smoke came from a pile of leaves in the back yard, roughly four feet high, which the resident, Charlene, had set alight. She was standing beside it with a rake, and informed the responders that the fire was under control. The pile was extinguished by hose line. The resident declined to step away from the pile and was, in the course of the operation, extinguished as well. She was not on fire. The department notes that it had no way of being sure. The force of the water distributed the pile evenly across the yard, the back porch, and the resident. Officer Markle reports that when the operation concluded, she was wet through and covered from head to foot in partly burned maple leaves. A child passing on a bicycle stopped to ask what she was going to be for Halloween. Final Disposition: Citation issued under the village open-burning ordinance. Fire out. Leaves to be re-raked, wet. The resident asks that it be recorded that the fire department did not need to use the whole hose. This editor has agreed not to print the street, which the entire village already knows.
Park Avenue—Reported Theft of a Rake. Reported by Officer Wilson. At approximately 10:00 a.m. Saturday, a resident reported that her rake had been taken from her front yard while she stepped inside for coffee. Officer Wilson located the rake at the bottom of the leaf pile, where it had been raked by the resident's husband, who had come outside to help. Final Disposition: Rake recovered. Husband thanked, and asked to go back inside.
📋 COMMUNITY NOTICES
Open Burning—Prohibited within the village limits. Village ordinance has forbidden the burning of leaves, brush, and yard waste inside the village since 1971. Police Chief Carter notes that the Maple Grove Volunteer Fire Department has now been called out twice in two weeks for smoke that turned out not to be a house fire, and that every one of its volunteers left a supper table to answer the call. He asks residents to think of the suppers.
Leaf Collection—Mondays, through the end of November. The village crew will collect leaves raked to the curb. To the curb, not into the street, where they wash down the storm grates. The storm grates on Main are cleared on Saturday mornings by the community service crew, who have asked, through Officer Sanchez, that this be mentioned.
Fall Farmers Market—Saturdays through October, 9:00 a.m. to noon, the town square. Apples by the bushel and the peck, cider by the gallon, and squash in quantities that suggest somebody overplanted. The pumpkin weigh-in remains scheduled for later this month. The growers have stopped discussing it altogether, which this editor is told is a good sign.
🏛️ HISTORICAL NOTE
The Village Council passed the open-burning ordinance in September of 1971, after an autumn in which the smoke over Main Street was thick enough that this newspaper described that year's Homecoming parade as "heard more than seen." The ordinance was introduced by Councilman Dale Hutchins, who spoke in its favor at two meetings and is recorded in the minutes as saying that the village "has the right to breathe."
The ordinance took effect on October 1, 1971. The first citation under it was issued on October 1, 1971, at 6:30 in the evening, to Councilman Hutchins, who was found in his back yard with a rake and a burning pile. He told the officer that he had understood the ordinance to take effect at midnight. The officer showed him the ordinance, which said October 1, and pointed out that it was October 1. The Councilman paid the fine, which was two dollars, and the following spring voted to raise it to five.
There have been fifty-four Octobers since. In forty-nine of them, the Gazette has recorded at least one leaf fire inside the village limits. In every one where the paper recorded what the resident said, the resident said it was under control. This editor offers the record without further comment.
🔍 Fellow Sleuths Worth Following
A Deadly Nightmare by L.B. Dayton
L.B. Dayton was here last month with her chef. This time it's her painter.
A Halloween show at Sadie Stewart's Chicago gallery, a painting nobody hung that shows Sadie herself in a field of bloody thorns, and a phantom with rules. If you like your October cozy to end at a masked ball, with a Doberman who never leaves her side, Sadie's gallery is open late.
Book 7 in the Sadie Stewart series. $2.99, or free in Kindle Unlimited.
See the full spotlight →
Grab it on Amazon →
FREE READS—OCTOBER TITLES
We're halfway through October and the free shelf is still stocked. Rake first. Read after.
Browse October’s Free Books →
🍽️ THE MAIN COURSE
Last week the Homecoming crown went back into the trophy case at Maple Grove High. Everybody in town knows that trophy case. It's been bolted to the wall for decades.
Which is why it was a problem when sixteen-year-old Jenna McGregor bumped into it, and the next morning it had moved.
That's Ghosts Don't Use Blueprints, the prequel. Teenage Jenna. Lisa, already sure she sees what other people don't. Joe Carter, years before he was Chief, back when he was a football player. Dan Harper and his bulldog, Winston. The teachers say nothing changed. The janitor says nothing changed. Then a championship trophy disappears, and there are seams in the walls nobody wants to talk about.
It's the one with the secret passages. It's the right October read if you like your spooky with a flashlight and a best friend. And if you've never been to Maple Grove, it's where all of it started.
Book 1, Scones, Secrets & Sabotage, is free →
✍️ Behind the Scenes
Last week I said I'd be out in the yard until the frost told me to stop. The frost still hasn't said anything, so I'm still out there. Every time I finish a section, the maples drop another layer on it. For the record, I rake. I do not burn. Charlene and I are not the same.
Inside, it's apple season, which in our house means everything is apple. Applesauce. Gluten-free apple crisp. Apples in things that did not ask for apples. We're easing into the cozier food too: soup, chili, the first pot of something that simmers all afternoon and makes the house smell like October.
See you next Saturday, fellow sleuths—same town, new trouble.
— Willow 🌿
Meet Willow
Author, School Board member, and gluten-free baker. I write the Jenna McGregor mysteries from my home in Michigan, fueled by coffee and Peloton PRs.
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