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