| I remember my Sicilian father tending to his garden, a | | | | Kentucky blue grass seed, and rope off the entire |
| beer can poised in a flower bed, a cigarette hanging | | | | area with string, sticks, and rags, to deter any intruders. |
| out of his mouth. He would grow several kinds of | | | | It offended him greatly when squirrels would steal his |
| tomatoes, zucchini the size of baseball bats, and the | | | | nearly ripe peppers, because they never ate them, |
| most perfectly shaped green peppers. Our front lawn | | | | they just batted them about the way a cat would a |
| was always impeccable. He would turn over the | | | | ball of yarn. |
| ground, deposit a coating of snow-white lime atop the | | | | |