I remember a lesson taught to me by my parents many, many years ago. It is a lesson I put into use on a weekly basis. Drift back in time with me to my boyhood and see if You agree with me about a Lesson learned.
It’s 1970 and Our neighbor is a “Freak” about his lawn, it is always “Perfect”, The envy of any golf course grounds crew. His yard was so nice that for a long time I convinced my friends that it really wasn’t grass, it was Carpet, Hey I had them goin’ for a few years on that one. Now, go over one house and let’s look at the Mann’s lawn…….No where near as perfect as Mr. Golf Course next door, in fact Our back yard was a (1.)Football field (2.)Baseball field (3.)Basketball court (4.) Soccer field and (5.)A camp ground.
Our front yard looked much better, not because it was off limits to us, but because that backyard was just “Our Perfect Place”. If You looked at our backyard you would see that right in the middle, there was very little grass, it was more like a well worn path of dirt and on that path of dirt is where I made some of my most spectacular moves, the greatest moves ever made in Backyard Football History!!! The Most Graceful Moves ever made in Backyard Basketball History……..and so on as the story goes.
Now one evening while my friends Pasquallie, Hody, Roddy and Cleever (yes those are there real names, OK, not there real real names, but the names they were known by in our neighborhood) We were camping out (in a tent made by my Mom, which was a few old sheets thrown over the clothes line and staked into that Beautiful Backyard Lawn of ours) and overheard a conversation my parents were having with ” Mr. Golf Course Perfect Lawn”.
He was asking my Mom and Dad about their reasons for letting our backyard look like an old ball field. It seemed to bother him that our yard wasn’t as pristene as his. This is where I learned that Lesson I was telling You about earlier in this Novel, My parents answer to him was ” Were raising children Not Grass”. That has stuck with me for a lifetime. Happy Kids and an ugly backyard was a fair trade off in my parents eyes, though to us kids there was nothing ugly about our “Backyard Yankee Stadium”, it was Perfect to us and My Parents knew that.
So now I’m going to Prove to everyone that I took that little lesson to heart.
My Little Niece Leslie loves to drive the Lawn Tractor, so while I was Mowing the other day I noticed her waving to me from the porch, she wanted to drive the mower more than anything that day. Now I was busy keeping that Mower in a perfect straight line so that the Lawn would Look so Nice when I was finished and then it dawned on me, “Steve, You are Not Mr. Perfect Lawn”…..”This is Not a Golf Course”…..”You are raising a Child, Not Grass”,,, Let that Little Girl Mow the Lawn with You!!!!! Remembering what was taught to me many years ago…..Leslie and I had the most fun any Human’s could ever have, just riding and mowing in Circles, Figure 8’s and any other way she wanted to steer that tractor. So if You happen to drive by my house and notice that my front lawn is not “Golf Course Like”…..don’t feel bad for me, “I know it may not look perfect to You, but I’m raising a Happy Kid and her and her Uncle Steve are having a Blast.” by the way Leslie might be a NASCAR star someday, she’s a real Driver.
