by Chris Tilley

Created on: November 30, 2009   Last Updated: December 03, 2009

Gardening is fun and inexpensive with rewards great and innumerable. Gardening with the parents can be a blast. But bring a machete into the picture, and those age old fears remnant still from childhood might creep into the picture.

Cutting border grass is a lot of work and effort. Bringing it down the line in the middle to section a slice of grass can be challenging and definitely macho, especially with a machete. Watching the old man cut into the border grass made me remember going to the shrubs and pulling switches every so often to be beaten. And watching him slice and tug into the grass reminded me of the times he used them. Funny isn't it, the way the mind works is confounding. But it is true, cutting border grass with Dad and a machete can bring back unrelated memories that just make the conversation wild.

The beating were never really painful. But they did the job for a year or two. Just one or two slices of a switch like the seed stalk of the border grass and man, oh man, was a child dissuaded. Dad just did it old school. And the border grass brought it out funny.

He turns to me with the machete, Dad does. Holds it up and says to me, "at least it was never with the broadside of this." And I was thankful for the border grass. So, take a stroll down memory lane with the parents and some gardening. Just use tools better than a machete. Please take my advice on this.

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