venerdì 25 aprile 2008

The old Lady and the Lawnmower

Just now, I was minding my own business, transcriping an interview about a new solar cell technology when visons of an old lady and a lawnmower popped into my head.

The summer after my sophomore year of college: I took a botany class out at Cedar Point Biological Research Station, out in the gorgeous Nebraska sandhills. I think we were on a Saturday field trip, b/c we were all in a big state-owned maroon van. We were going somewhere, but at the moment, we were going nowhere. We were sitting in the stopped van in some tiny town holding on for dear life. I saw an old woman in a floral print house dress stoopped over her gas powered lawn mower, in her front yard. She yanked and yanked but couldn't get the engine to stop.

Without a word, one of the girls in the van jumped out, ran across the street and into the yard. After a few quick and friendly words, she bent over, grabbed the cord, yanked and got the engine started for the old woman.

I love Nebraska. Sometimes.

3 commenti:

W ha detto...

the lady should plant the yard so it never needs mowing...would it be nice to jump out of the car and tell her that instead?? : )

jb ha detto...

I swore the van was blue. Funny how memory does weird stuff. But I do know that by the time we were done with it, it was also dented on the front fender from bouncing up and down on the rocky roads in the Nebraska National Forest.

I had a streak of blond in the front of my hair.

You and I sang "And I said, what about Breakfast at Tiffany's ..." over and over again as we drove.

Daniel ha detto...

the van could totally be blue. I'm realzing that my memory is totally faulty when it comes to details. And you seem to be on top of things...so I'll go with blue...in fact, I prefer blue vans to maroon vans. :)