Last weekend was an amazing couple of days for touring the mountains of southeastern Kentucky in search of picture perfect foliage and photo opportunities. The temperature was pleasant and the long awaited arrival of fall color did not disappoint.

A longtime friend came over from Somerset to do an annual leaf tour with me on Saturday.

We started the day with brunch at Kingdom Come State Park with the McDaniels family. Eating homemade biscuits, sausage gravy, hash browns, fried apples, scrambled eggs and country ham at a cookout on top of the mountain in the midst of all the falling leaves was a memorable experience. From there, I drove him the back way to Pine Mountain Settlement School and back around until we turned off on Little Shepherd Trail. He took hundreds of digital pictures of amazing fall color.

It seems to be a year of golds, browns and yellows. There were very few reds or bright oranges.

I thought I had shown him the best foliage Harlan County had to offer this year, but I was wrong.

On Sunday, I went to an old-fashioned day celebration at Martins Fork Lake sponsored by the Full Gospel Pentecostal Church of God at Smith.

The mountain hues were gloriously reflected in the lake. It made a perfect backdrop for the day's activities.

Church and community members came together with food, fun and fellowship. It did my heart good to see so many gathered for a “fun” day.

Everyone was supposed to dress for the theme of the day. Men wore bibbed overalls, flannel shirts, boots and hats. Women were dressed in long dresses, bonnets and shawls. But most adorable were the children in their old fashioned garbs.

I especially enjoyed seeing the adults and children at play. There were horseshoes for the men while the women presided over the food or some sang.

Children gathered to play old-fashioned games like “Red Rover,” and “Mother, May I.” They also had races on foot and competed in hay bail rolling contests. From the biggest to the smallest, the oldest to the youngest, everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time.

The funniest part of the day was when all of the men put on their wives' bonnets or hats and posed for a group shot.

It was hard to get a good photo of the group because they couldn't stand still with the wind was blowing their bonnets backwards, and the photographers were all laughing too hard to hold their cameras steady.

The fall colors were a perfect backdrop for the day's activities.

Together the simple day of driving my friend around to look at the trees and the day of watching everyone having such simple fun made me think about how much the world has changed, even in my lifetime. Many of those changes have not been for the better.

Community gatherings were a common thing in days gone by. The games, singing, laughter and good food were a perfect combination for bringing people together to enjoy each other's company before television, video games, malls and theaters became the order of the day.

Spending family time together and bringing extended family together were cherished.

Watching children play the traditional games was a source of entertainment for children and adults.

Even though it is true that we cannot live in the past, and that we must be in touch with the real world around us, it is still good to set a day aside for looking backward at the old days and the old ways that laid the foundation for who we are today.

The simple things in life were and are the best. There is nothing old fashioned about that.