A Romantic Home for Romantic People

"As children, my two sisters and I regarded the lot on which the house was built later as a chore and a play area. I remember looking for wild irises, roses, holly, and other interesting plants. We were sometimes charged with the task of mowing, which to teenagers was never a fun thing. We would always try to get out of mowing; stating we had plans with friends, or that it was too hot, but we rarely managed to get out of it. If we did have to mow, my sister and I would negotiate who would do the ditches or the main part, or who would use the push mower and who would have the self-propelled.

Either way, it was always at least 3 hours of mowing, during which I used to pretend that it was a jungle I had to explore and tame, as the grass seemed to grow inches daily just to spite us.

On the times when Dad mowed the lot, it was always our job to make him a lunch and cold drinks and walk the block to deliver it to him. We would then sit under the old maple tree and have a picnic with Dad. Those were the most enjoyable times, because before we went back home we would look for 4-leaf clovers in the clover patches or pick up sticks in the yard.

The lots were actually very pretty; quite large together with lots of room for a nice house and lots of trees—lots of trees. The lot had a large maple in the center, and was protected on one side by a row of large, old oak trees. There was a grapevine which was left over from the original house, and so tangled and overgrown we simply mowed around it. "

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