By G. E. Shuman
You
know how, at times, there is a rhyme, or a song that you love: “How Sweet It Is”-
James Taylor, or hate: “It’s A Small World”- Disney and Company, and it just
gets stuck in your head, sometimes for an entire day? Well, I must tell you
that at this time of year, EVERY year, since I was a child, the following tiny
poem worms its way out of the deepest, dumbest area of my brain: “Spring has
sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the flowers is.” I think my father said that silly poem to me
once, and evidently, once was enough.
Now I have passed it along to you, and you can thank me, or hurt me,
later.
Last
Saturday I was outside puttering and sputtering around, and decided, since
spring had sprung, that I would do some much-needed yard work. The work I had
put off was raking ANY of the leaves from our huge maple tree, last fall. (The
only thing that I like about winter here in Vermont is that it very effectively
puts off yard work until spring.) Being somewhat allergic to lawn rakes and
shovels, putting off until spring what you can’t do in winter anyway suits me
fine.
To do this much overdue chore I got
out my trusty lawnmower. That poor old mower was a birthday gift from my wife,
about twelve years ago. (Remind me to buy her a new iron or vacuum cleaner for
her next birthday.) Anyway, the sorry
old thing has seen her better days, (I mean the mower, not my wife,) and I had
intended to buy a new one this spring. The only thing is, as usual, she
immediately came back to life for me last Saturday, and I just hate to ‘put her
down’ quite yet. (I’m still talking about the mower, not my wife.) Truthfully it
has become somewhat of a challenge for me, to see how many years this little, $99
(on sale at Stuff-Mart) machine will last. (There’s nothing too good for me on my
birthday, I guess.)
The
mower was running a bit rough several years ago, and one of my neighbors told
me that for only $129 I could have it tuned up. (My thought, as he said that,
was: Or I could give this one away, and spend another $99 (on sale at
Stuff-Mart) for another brand new one.
What I actually did was visit my favorite hardware store and purchase a
$3 spark plug for the mower. It has been running great ever since. So much for
the tune up.
The
amazing thing is that I do torture the little mower, and it just keeps coming
back for more. The very first thing I did after we got it home from the store was
to drill two holes in the front of its frame, for S-hooks, which I attach to
ropes, which I use to dangle the mower down the steep bank in front of our
house, to mow that hill.
When mowing the lawn the first few times each spring I
also tend to hit a lot of twigs from the trees and rocks that have been thrown
up onto the lawn by my least favorite but most appreciated piece of yard
equipment, my snow blower. (I think the snow blower is ready for its twentieth
birthday, at least, and that thing just keeps on going, too.)
Yes, I have
not been kind to my little lawn mower. I have run over the dog run a few times,
and even ‘mow’ my carport several times each summer with it. I try to do that
at night, so no one sees. It works great to blow a winters worth of gravel,
salt, and sand off that asphalt and into the neighbor’s trees. (I’m sorry,
little mower, but I never promised you a rose garden. I did let you grind up
the wild roses out back last year, though. Remember?) Wait, was I talking to a lawn mower just
then?
Anyway,
last Saturday, as I said, and because of that lawn rake allergy that I suffer
from, I got the mower out, pulled the cord, the poor old thing started, and I proceeded
to run it all over the lawn, ‘mowing’ all those leaves from last fall into cornflake-looking
little crunchy pieces. I was told that they would make good, natural, organic
fertilizer for the grass. That sounded good to me. What actually happened is
that Saturday was a very blustery day, as Winnie the Pooh might say. My leaf-cornflakes
took to the sky, and I haven’t seen or heard from them since. “Away they all
flew, like the down of a thistle.” (Oh, that’s from another season.)
So, “spring
has sprung” and my newly-bare lawn won’t have the benefit of mulched up leaves
to help it grow, but that’s okay. It might also be a bit longer before “the
grass is riz.” Until then, I might have
to find something else for the mower to chew on. “I wonder where the flowers is.”