I just opened a can of diet Pepsi and immediately the fizz and taste brought me back to a time when I was about 14 years old, and I had just finished mowing the grass and trimming the bushes on a very HOT summer day. I got up early on a Saturday morning and cleaned the house prior to tackling the yard. Sometimes I would do the yard one day and the house the next. But on that day, I did both. It was always scary going out to the garage, because our lawn mower was real fickle. It was hit or miss if it was going to start up or not. If it didn't, I would get out the old fashioned push mower if I was determined to get the grass cut, and I was always determined. It was the kind of mower that looked like a roller with blades on it...dull blades, I might add. The only power it had was from the person pushing it. And with my small frame, it wasn't far. Numerous times Grandma and Grandpa would get a phone call, and they never failed to come to my rescue. Grandpa almost always got the lawn mower started for me. Can you imagine? A teenager, excited about the roar of a lawn mower?
The breeze cooled my body as I sat down on the lawn chair, underneath the walnut tree in the front yard, with my bottle of pepsi. I looked around at the yard and felt so good about how nice it looked. I watched the cars that drove by, hoping they were all noticing our nice yard and the work it took to make it look that way. I knew Mom would be happy when she came home from work. She never said too much about me doing the yard work back then. I just did it and never thought it was a big deal. But when I got older she told me over and over again how proud she was of me for taking on so much responsibility as a young girl.
I was the oldest of five girls, and Mom had to work, sometimes two shifts a day, just to make enough money to take care of us. So I did what I did to help my mom. I had time for my friends when Mom came home and I was relieved of my responsibilities. All of my sisters were easy to babysit. They usually paired up in twos and either played in the house with their dolls and toys, or with their friends in our yard, or at a nearby neighbor's house. Sometimes us girls would each pick a room in the house to clean, and we would make a contest out of it. When Mom came home from work, she would pick the room she thought was the cleanest. We couldn't wait for her to come home and see our efforts to make our simple home look like a Better Homes and Garden home. Mom would walk in the door and we would all run to greet her and look at her face as she made admiring comments about how nice the house looked. Mom probably had other things on her mind, like paying the bills, getting supper ready, and probably just wanting to lay down and rest for a bit. But she never disappointed us when she walked in the door. Her eyes, her words, made it all so worth it. We actually looked forward to Saturdays, and not because there was no school and we could watch Saturday morning cartoons, but we could do something that made us all feel good, and help lighten the load for our mom, and put a smile on her face.
Over the years, even after I had my own family and yard to maintain, I sometimes stopped by to help Mom with her lawn. She always appreciated it. She would work with me on the yard, pulling weeds, trimming, etc. We would have great conversations during that time together. When we finished, we would sit on the back patio and talk some more...while enjoying a cold glass of ice water. The last couple of years I did her lawn numerous times and it reminded me of those younger years. Those same problem areas are still there...the dip in the lawn by the neighbor's chain link fence, where the wheels of the lawn mower would always get stuck, the piece of cement behind the garage that sticks out and catches the blades of the mower, the hill, with the rocks, tree limbs, bushes, and steep back side, and the special area on the hill where we buried our pets...cats, hamsters, and even fish. Those days are over now since Mom is not in good health and is no longer living in our family home. The house will be sold eventually. But the memories will always be with me.
