f r e s h s t a r t

Saturday, June 05, 2004

 

My block consists mostly of three-flats with a few single-family houses and larger apartment buildings and condos mixed in. All of the front yards, except two, consist of grass and a few bushes or an ornamental tree. Our neighbors across the street have some weird yard ornaments and kept a white plastic Christmas tree on display into the spring, but the real visual treat is at the other end of the block.

Ferns and hostas fill the yard which is surrounded by a short chain-link fence. Lodged in the branches of the small tree in the front yard is a red Fischer-Price horse on wheels (I actually had one just like it when I was toddler). The owner has some sort large wooden trellis leaning against another tree, but instead of flowers or plants, it he has a stuffed cloth aligator and a plastic dinosaur attached to it. There is a globe on the front porch and a cushioned stool on the sidewalk leading up to the house.

When I moved to this neighborhood I wondered for months what kind of person lived there, and after I started keeping dog-owner hours I discovered that it was the little old man who owns a little old deaf and partially blind pug who Henry and I would see from time to time.

This morning Henry and I were walking and we saw him weeding his garden and stopped to chat. A few things that I learned about my mysterious neighbhor:
He wants the yard to look like a jungle
He doesn't like mowing
He puts toys in his trees (and keeps them there year round) because he thinks they make the yard interesting
He's an artist who makes copies of and improvements on paintings by Van Gogh and Picasso (he let me go look at a few that were hanging in his foyer)
He is 81 years old and has lived in his house for 24 years
He used to teach art to little kids

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