LINDEMAN: The Summer of Our Discontent
Day lilies in the Lindemans’ newly weeded garden on Tazewell Avenue.
By BRUCE LINDEMAN
September 26, 2012
“I wonder what this is — hope it’s not something that belongs here,” my neighbor Dave observed. I looked at the plant he had just pulled out of my yard.
“No, it’s definitely a weed.”
I had just arrived back in town to attend to the chores of moving to a new vacation home. Although we were only moving from Monroe to Tazewell, there was still plenty to do.
We’re not full-timers in Cape Charles yet, but we’ll get there eventually. We had kids a little later in life and they’re entrenched in their Richmond school and friends.
So, we come and go, but we come and go often. We relish the moment we reach the bridge-tunnel, as the temperature drops and the briny scent tells us we’ve left the hustle and bustle of city life — if just for a while.
I had been weed-whacking our flowerbeds left unattended by the previous owners, who were residents for some 20 years. Along the way they lovingly restored their home – our new home – to its 1890s glory. But after time the flower beds had languished.
Dave had ridden his bicycle into our yard, beer in hand, and begun pulling weeds. Almost an hour later, he was still weeding.
What Dave was doing would never play out back home in Richmond — at least not where we live.
Don’t get me wrong. Richmonders are a friendly lot. My wife and I love our neighborhood for its handsome architecture and abundance of neighbors out and about, quick to stop and chat. We have great neighbors. But I can’t recall anyone pulling up in my yard and weeding our flowerbeds. [Read more…]
