Green Door ---

THE BACK YARD was all prepped and ready for …… what? Seed? Hydro-seed? Sod? We needed to hasten our decision for two reasons. 1) We wanted grass, soon! 2) The weatherman said summer was roarin’ in hot, dry, and fast.

We immediately discounted planting seed. Too hot. It had to be either Hydro seed or $od. That dollar sign was the deciding vote. Hydro-seed it was. We called the company and they were scheduling appointments 3 days out…. Monday morning was our turn.

Midnight, one more night without sleepin.' Watchin' till the mornin' comes creepin.' Green door, what's that secret you're keepin'?

Monday morning.
“Ring Ring Ring. Hello. Oh. Wednesday? Afternoon? I guess if that’s the best you can do.” A delay because another job was taking longer than anticipated.

The hubby understands all the pitfalls of landscaping. He would be the last person to speak disparaging words to someone who was trying his best to do a job. “Wednesday would be fine,” he told them.

There's an old piano And they play it hot behind the green door. Don't know what they're doin' But they laugh a lot behind the green door. Wish they'd let me in So I could find out what's behind the green door.

By Wednesday, the mercury on the patio thermometer was threatening to reach triple digits. “We are cutting this to close,” I commented before I left for work. “Yeah,” responded the hubby, "if we get into the high 90’s then I’ll have to be here 24/7 to make sure the sprinklers cover all that sprayed on seed.” At 5 pm, THE BACK YARD was still not hydro-seeded. “They called,” the hubby grumbled. “The equipment broke down.” Postponed until Friday.

We looked at the weather forecast: high 90’s, low 100’s. The hubby and I looked into each other eyes in a long silent dialogue. (When you’ve been together 30 years, words are superfluous.)

Knocked once, tried to tell them I'd been there. Door slammed, hospitality's thin there. Wond'rin' just what's goin' on in there

First thing Thursday morning the hubby called a sod company (about 50 miles away). “We have our yard all prepped and we’re looking at a weekend too hot for seed. Can you help us?

The guy that answered the phone wasn't encouraging. “The earliest is Monday,” he responded. The hubby and I went back to the silent dialogue, each thinking through the pro’s and con’s of switching horses in mid stream and what would be the consequences of doing so.

Minutes later.....Ring Ring Ring. “Hey,” the excited guy at the sod company exclaimed, “We’ve had a cancellation and a fully loaded semi-truck is coming your way first thing tomorrow morning. How much do you need?”

Saw an eyeball peepin' Through a smoky cloud behind the green door. When I said Joe sent me Someone laughed out loud behind the green door. All I want to do is join the happy crowd behind the green door

They had exactly what we'd ordered when the two-trailor semi pulled up Friday at 7:30 a.m. sharp. The driver lowered a ramp, revved up his little hyster, and lifted the first of 8 ½ pallets of rolled up green. After he unloaded them side-by-side on the parking strip he manuevered the hyster back on the truck and headed for his next customer about 6 blocks east of us.
The teenaged son of one of our friends showed up for about 3 hours to help cart sod into the back yard. Nevertheless, the majority of the work was on the hubby’s shoulders because it happened to fast to find more help; plus, it was my friday to work late. I got home at 6:30 p.m. to find him about 2/3 of the way done and still chugging. I changed my clothes and helped for 2 hours and then dragged him by his collar into the house for food. We would have to finish up tomorrow.

Midnight, one more night without sleepin.' Watchin' till that mornin' comes creepin.' Green door, what's that secret you're keepin'

Saturday wasn’t going to be a good sod-laying day. The hubby had already committed to an early 63-mile memorial bicycle ride. I had an obligation that morning as well, although not physically demanding. AND......it was just plain HOT.

We both returned home about 2 p.m, knowing we needed to get the remainder of the sod rolling. The hubby looked like a salted old sailor from his long hot bike ride, and I get sunstroke just taking out the garbage. However, I mustered up some sod-wrangling skills, and a big jug of RELIV Innergize for us both and kept the cart moving to THE BACK YARD just fast enough to keep up with him. Finally, with all the sod down, he started pushing the ‘prehistoric’ lawn roller to press it firmly to the dirt. I got the cushy job of manually watering all the sod (and myself) with a long hose and a gentle refreshing spray.

Several hours later we’d removed our filthy clothes in the utility, and stood partially disrobed inside the darkened room. We were so happy, we just couldn't help it and we laughed out loud behind the green ….door.


The Green Door -Artist: Jim Lowe
-peak Billboard position #1 for 3 weeks in 1956

Comments

Walker said…
IT LOOKS GREAT! A lot of trouble... but great! haha.
Karmyn R said…
AWESOME! Finally! - no more dust now, huh? How did the new grass survive the heat?

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