Landscape Artists
Friday, January 9th, 2009
Mothers shoved windows open in the unseasonable warmth to let the houses breathe out the stale air from children and pets. For the first time since the early fall, the sun was warm and the women who work at home during the day took every measure to let it in and the winter doldrums out. And those who toiled outside for a living stopped to admire their work and the weather, which is a rare occasion in early January.
At the entrance to a suburban neighborhood, landscapers worked outside in short sleeves. They rolled wheel barrows through damp flower beds and whipped hand-held leave blowers down gutters to clean up mulch and loose leaves. All six men wore ballcaps and they attacked the small hills with a detailed plan and concentrated formations like something from a miltary attack manual. The two men in the flatbed handed out tools and filled up machinery with small gas cans. Another man circled with a shovel, occasionally stamping a hole in the ground that was quickly filled and raked over by his partner. And the last man, perhaps the foremn, orchestrated it all and alternated helping in all the aforementioned duties.
The men had poured several humps woth the mulch around the edge of the median while another smoothed it out, brushing it with the rake gently as though adding a last stroke to a masterpice. His eyes were focused like an artist’s: squinted and deep within himself. Some light gusts blew dirt in a wisp that quickly dissapted but not before it passed over the men. Suddenly, they were done. The truck bed was raised apparently the equipment had been cleaned up as one man circled with the leaf blower.
These were working men toiling outside, not impressed or flattered to be doing work here, but grateful for a break from the bitter cold. They worked diligently – not fast, but sufficiently – and while it went unspoken, the unseasonable warmth added some energy to each push, rake, trim or step. They were the only dedication to be be found outdoors in this town today and some of the mothers nearby watched them through window screens instead of glass.
