Planting the Garden
Memorial Day Weekend.
A weekend when we remember those who fought to keep this country safe.
An extra day at a time of the year when the weather starts to get really nice (although it's about 22 degrees this morning).
Barbecues.
A few beers.
And planting the garden.
As a kid this was the weekend.
Dad would usher us up and out of bed early and we'd all groan about it.
"Why can't we plant it at noon?"
"Get your ass out of bed!"
(Dad was the best at debating).
So off we'd go...all rubbing our eyes...all laughing, eventually...all getting chased back to the house every so often with my father yelling that he was going to kill every last one of us.
Throwing rocks at each other.
Making fun of each other.
Wondering why Corinne and Carrie didn't have to help.
Just a Dad and his four sons...on the ground...planting row after row after row of vegetables.
"Those are too close!"
Dad would tell us a lot of stories about planting the garden with his Dad. Grandpa once told Dad that he'd lie awake at night listening to the tomato plants scream, 'Move Over!' 'cause Dad, as a child was planting them too close.
When I was about 7 years old I was tasked with planting the rest of the cukes.
I ripped open the packages of seeds and dumped them under the manure pile...thinking if I hid them I'd be done faster.
Obviously they grew there and my secret was out.
The good news was that we never had a better batch of cukes and Dad never forgot it...
...he'd remind me of it every year...
...even when I was in my 30's and stopped over to help him out.
The garden is no longer up at the big house on the hill.
I don't have a garden at my home...although my brothers certainly do.
I tried it for a lot of years, but I could never quite get it right.
I also couldn't sell it to my boys, who wanted nothing to do with getting out of bed to plant tomatoes, peppers and cukes.
"They sell that stuff at Tops!"
But I miss planting the garden.
Who would've thought it?
All those years...waking up early...getting dirt under my fingernails...putting down the plastic, cutting the holes, dropping the plant in and covering it with soil.
We learned a lot.
And man...
...I really do miss it.
A weekend when we remember those who fought to keep this country safe.
An extra day at a time of the year when the weather starts to get really nice (although it's about 22 degrees this morning).
Barbecues.
A few beers.
And planting the garden.
As a kid this was the weekend.
Dad would usher us up and out of bed early and we'd all groan about it.
"Why can't we plant it at noon?"
"Get your ass out of bed!"
(Dad was the best at debating).
So off we'd go...all rubbing our eyes...all laughing, eventually...all getting chased back to the house every so often with my father yelling that he was going to kill every last one of us.
Throwing rocks at each other.
Making fun of each other.
Wondering why Corinne and Carrie didn't have to help.
Just a Dad and his four sons...on the ground...planting row after row after row of vegetables.
"Those are too close!"
Dad would tell us a lot of stories about planting the garden with his Dad. Grandpa once told Dad that he'd lie awake at night listening to the tomato plants scream, 'Move Over!' 'cause Dad, as a child was planting them too close.
When I was about 7 years old I was tasked with planting the rest of the cukes.
I ripped open the packages of seeds and dumped them under the manure pile...thinking if I hid them I'd be done faster.
Obviously they grew there and my secret was out.
The good news was that we never had a better batch of cukes and Dad never forgot it...
...he'd remind me of it every year...
...even when I was in my 30's and stopped over to help him out.
The garden is no longer up at the big house on the hill.
I don't have a garden at my home...although my brothers certainly do.
I tried it for a lot of years, but I could never quite get it right.
I also couldn't sell it to my boys, who wanted nothing to do with getting out of bed to plant tomatoes, peppers and cukes.
"They sell that stuff at Tops!"
But I miss planting the garden.
Who would've thought it?
All those years...waking up early...getting dirt under my fingernails...putting down the plastic, cutting the holes, dropping the plant in and covering it with soil.
We learned a lot.
And man...
...I really do miss it.
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