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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Lawn Monument

When I was 14, I used to mow the lawn. It was a large, swathe of territory in the front yard. In the middle of the lawn was  lawn sprinkler, covered by a plastic covering, and the sprinkler was connected by a hose that ran under the lawn to a faucet on the house. This sprinkler had actually never been turned on. In fact the hose from the sprinkler was never connected to the faucet.

Run over

One day I was mowing the lawn. I can to that spot in the middle of the lawn where the plastic covering for the lawn sprinkler sat. Thinking everything was held down tightly, I pushed the lawnmower forward, right over the plastic cover. A moment later, I heard a bitter, grinding sound, as the lawn mower sucked the plastic sprinkler cover right out of the ground, and mulched up the plastic.

Reaction

My father saw this and lit into me with anger. Ok, I thought, I can understand he is sensitive about the damage. Yet this is a thing that has never been used, with no outlook for use. What perplexed me more, was the next step in his reaction. He immediately went out to the nearby hardware center and got another plastic sprinkler with a cover that could fit into the hole where the lawn sprinkler was positioned. It wasn't connected so it wasn't functional (it could considered dysfunctional - a monument in the center of our front lawn).

Perplexed

I was really confused about this. 'It's crazy.' I kept saying to myself. The thing that was never used is destroyed. Now it's been replaced by something else that will definitely not be used. It just didn't make sense. This was ridiculous.

I just wanted that validation from somewhere, someone to reassure me and validate my thoughts I was seeing things clearly, that his actions defied logic.

How I would have appreciated a Children of Hoarders forum to reach out to then.

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