Today was the non-stop day I had prepared myself for after reviewing my schedule yesterday. It’s interesting how a very busy day can seem like a merry-go-round of faces and places. Believe me, I was really working at being attentive during each meeting. One of my appointments later this afternoon were with buyers whom I have known for some time, so it was actually fun being a bit of a jokester with them. Laughter does relieve a bit of the day’s stress. I was making fun of the colors one of the sellers had used on his inside walls. They were definitely not even colors I would have used in a bad dream. I never could quite understand what runs through the minds of people when they decide to paint a room. These Pepto-Bismol pink rooms I encounter remind me of something out of a cartoon. Murals and wallpaper, along with the decals of worn-out phrases placed conspicuously around the home are a bit much. It must be ideas they get while watching HDTV and think if it looks good on the tube, then it will look good in their homes.
Since I was doing a lot of driving around town today, I did notice a number of young people out working in their gardens. I think I noticed more so far this year, than I have in some years past. It gives me great joy to see the young gardening enthusiasts. It not only helps with the grocery budget, but also creates beauty as well as a sense of accomplishment when they’ve harvested their own sources of food.
Back during the war years, families had their own large gardens to keep from having to purchase food that was grown by farmers. That food was intended for the armed forces and people were encouraged to make do with the resources they had available to them at home. After the war, many people just continued having gardens because of the freshness of the vegetables and fruits available outside their back doors which of course was more desirable.
I had a recent closing with a client who was raised on a small acreage which was in the present day northwest corner of Central Heights. She spoke about her parents and grandparents having beautiful yet monstrous gardens. She made me smile when speaking about picking endless rows of strawberries, yet even today she doesn’t have a problem with picking them. Because I have known her well for many years, I would say some of the lessons she learned in her parents’ Victory Garden had a very positive affect on her outlook on life. The end of my day today has created more smiles just thinking about her and her family. By the way, somewhere along her life path, she’s learned how to make a killer chocolate chip cookie.
