grampa and the magic sunflower

[From Dad, for Ji:]

"Once upon a time a Grampa lived in Toronto far away from his only grandson.  But the Grampa knew that his grandson was coming to visit so he wanted to do something special.

Now the Grampa has never liked working in the garden very much.  When he was a boy, he had to work in the garden with Oompa, Nana and Uncle Rob.  It was awful work. In the spring, we had to wait for Mr. Dyck to come with his big tractor to plough our huge garden.  Then we had to level out the furrows with rakes.  After that, Oompa took a big, wooden rake and traced lines over the garden to mark where the vegetables should go.  Then we planted potatoes.  Oompa would dig a hole with his spade and Grampa had to put in a piece of potato.  If Grampa did not put it in properly, he had to bend down and fix it.  We would do this about 5000 times because we ate a lot of potatoes!

Then in the early summer, we had to hill the potatoes.  This meant we had to use a hoe to scrape up the dirt around the potato plants so the sun would not dry out the baby potatoes.  This was hot and dirty work because it is always windy in Calgary.  When we finished our work, Uncle Rob and I would each drink 50 beers because we were so hot and thirsty.

Then in the fall, we had to dig the potatoes, pile them in a deep pit to dry out and then came the really nasty part.  We had to load the potatoes into gunny sacks and each gunny sack weighed 200 kilos.  We had to lift each one onto the truck and when the truck was full, we drove to the house.   And then came the really nasty part.  We had to carry each gunny sack down into the dugout basement which was a very scary place.  The walls were made of dirt and there were always spiders and mice hanging around.  The mice were the same size as Maggie and did they ever like potatoes! As for the spiders, I always went face first into their webs.  Yucch!  After wiping off the spider webs and yelling at the mice to go and hide in their holes, we had to empty each gunny sack of potatoes into a huge bin and then cover them with sand so the mice and spiders could not get them.

Do you see why I never liked gardening very much?  And you are probably wondering what this all has to do with sunflowers....

Anyways, do you remember Gramma and Grampa's mulch pit in the back yard?  It was made of cedar boards and we dumped in all of our leftover vegetable peelings and other yucky stuff.  A mulch pit is a very good idea for recycling but Grampa was lazy and never turned over the mulch with his digging fork.  This meant the mulch smelled very bad. Again Yucch!  Our new neighbours did not like the smell and asked if we could move the mulch pit.  So, this spring I took apart the mulch pit and moved all the boards to the Country House.  This meant there was a big space at the back of the yard where we could plant something.  We also had to big, heavy cement tiles that we used for standing on while we dumped the mulch.  I leaned them on the side of the fence where there on a ledge.

I decided that I wanted to plant some sunflowers right by the edge of the fence so that when my grandson came to visit, he would be greeted by big yellow sunflowers waving to him over the top of the fence. So I went to Loblaws but THERE WERE NO SUNFLOWERS LEFT.  So I went to Canadian Tire but THERE WERE NO SUNFLOWERS LEFT.  Finally I went to the Danforth garden place that always has sunflowers, but THEY WERE SOLD OUT.  Thankfully you have a Grandma who is very wise and observant.  When she came home and saw how sad and disappointed I was, she said that the store at the end of the street HAD SUNFLOWERS FOR SALE.

So I raced over in the car and bought 3 beautiful sunflowers growing in 3 big pots.  These were the most beautiful sunflower plants I have ever bought.  In fact they were the first sunflower plants I have ever bought.  Each one was 2 feet tall and had a huge yellow sunflower smiling at me from the top of each plant.  I gently dug 3 holes and planted them very carefully right by the fence and I watered them every day for a week morning and night.

But I came home one night and a squirrel had come into the yard and bit off one of the beautiful yellow sunflowers.   Grampa was very sad but the other 2 were doing just fine. Gramma said she would bring me a beer if that would make me feel better but I said I wanted to drink 50 beers like when I was a boy!  I was really sad.

Then last weekend, Grampa rented a big cargo van to carry stuff up to the country house.  When I came home on Sunday it was very late and Grampa was very tired because he drove all the way from the country house in 3 hours and 10 minutes!!  This was a new world record and I kept to the speed limit all the way because Grampa always obeys the law.

But I was so tired, I forgot how big the cargo van was.  So instead of backing it up carefully and driving it in straight (your mumma knows all about this now that she is a driver) I tried to turn into the driveway on the first try.  Ooops!  The side of the van decided to kiss the gate!  It was a very hard kiss and the side of the gate broke into splinters and the side of the van was all red, just like the colour of the gate and the fence.  Grampa was so tired and so angry with himself that he just went into the house and went to bed because it was so hot, and so late, and so dark.  He forgot to drink 50 beers which might have made him feel better.

Next morning, Grampa got up early to check out the damage.  Enterprise Car Rental does not like to have its cargo vans returned and covered with red paint from a fence!  So I got my new hose and a wool cleaning pad and I rubbed and I scrubbed and I rubbed and I scrubbed and the hose slipped and sprayed my slippers with cold water and I rubbed and I scrubbed and the hose slipped and sprayed all over my glasses so I couldn't see!

Finally, all the paint was scrubbed off.  I had a shower and drove the van back to Enterprise and everybody was happy.  When I got home after work that night, I started watering the garden with my new hose.  Since I was not scrubbing a van I managed not to spray myself.  Then I remembered my sunflowers so I went over to pull open the broken gate so my new sunflowers could get some sunshine and some water.....And when I saw my sunflowers which I had planted for my grandson I wanted to cry or maybe go and drink 50 beers.

Remember the BIG, HEAVY CEMENT TILES I mentioned earlier?  Guess what happened when the big cargo van kissed the gate?  Yup, the crash made the tiles fall off the ledge of the fence.  And yes, they fell right onto the 2 closest sunflowers.  This was not a gentle fall, like a feather or a kite floating in the wind.  This was a serious fall.  The 2 sunflowers were crushed flat like pancakes.  Like a piece of paper lying on the floor.  Like Maggie when she has done something wrong and she tries to lie flat in her basket.  I went straight to the house and drank 50 beers!

The next day I went and gently levered the tiles up and off the 2 sunflowers.  They were not happy sunflowers!  They were flat, sort of killed and dead sunflowers.  I went straight back into the house and drank 50 beers!

This morning I went out to the killing ground and yes, they were still flat, sort of killed and dead sunflowers.  Tonight when I rode my bike past the gate after school, I decided to have one last look before the funeral and guess what I found?

The middle sunflower, the one that had its head bit off by a squirrel, the one that had been crushed by a BIG, HEAVY CEMENT TILE, yes Ji Hong, that very sunflower had decided not to give up and it had raised itself towards the sun.  It was no longer a flat, sort of killed and dead sunflower. Ask your Mumma or Pa to show you what a 30 degree angle looks like.  That is how much the sunflower has raised itself towards the sun.

I am a happy Grampa again.  I do not have to drink 50 beers!  I will go out later and give the Magic Sunflower a little drink of water.  Maybe we will have a little chat and maybe I can convince it to keep reaching for the sun and grow taller so that it can wave to  my grandson when he come to visit in August."

Did I mention that my Dad is not only THE greatest teacher, but he is also THE greatest Grampa ever? [Randy's Reviews-19-June-2005]