From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

When I was a kid and sometimes walked home from school instead of taking the slow bus ride in my small Massachusetts town, I’d often take a short cut through the woods.

At this time of the year most of the leaves had fallen; only the oaks had held onto many of their boringly brown leaves. So there was plenty of light as I walked between the bayberry and other shrubs. Deep in the woods you could find crabapples, smaller than the ones in orchards, which contrary to myth, you could eat. There were also some edible wild grapes left, amidst the enveloping breezy barrenness