Spotting the first bloom of the season on the crape myrtle she and her husband planted way back when at their Meyerland home brings up fond memories for homeowner Annie Sitton:
When we planted this tree, it was about ten feet tall with a large root ball. We’ve all seen bad guys in movies digging graves. They make it look so easy. Well, let me tell you…digging even a small hole in the earth is difficult work. When it was my turn at the shovel, I couldn’t believe the energy it took. After about ten minutes into my digging career, my shovel hit something hard…clunk. I screamed, “Buried treasure!” I had always said there was something special about this piece of land.
Oh . . . there was!
***
Tall Husband quickly came to the edge of the hole to take over. Refusing to give up the shovel, I dug faster, with new-found vigor. Finally our treasure was partially visible: “Old bed springs,” Tall Husband said in disgust.
Before we got that tree planted, in addition to wrestling bed springs out of the ground, we had dug up a rusty old ax head, an old railroad spike, bucket-loads of rusty metal and pieces of dirty, disintegrating rags.
We had to admit it. The evidence was in: we lived on an old garbage dump. All our romantic notions about American Indians having hunted Buffalo here; about pioneers passing through…all gone. We are garbage people!
“Well, it doesn’t look bad for a garbage dump,” Tall Husband tried to reassure me.
- Romancing the Garbage Dump [The Bunny Bungalow]
Photo: Annie Sitton
That’s Crepe Myrtle (like the fabric…just think about it)
haha, that was a cute story for a nice laugh.
Reminds me of a story I heard about a couple in Dallas who just had a new house built. A large patch of grass in their backyard died, so they had their landscaper dig it up to replace it. He dug down a few inches and his shovel hit something metal. It ended up being the roof of a car someone had buried years ago!
JC: No, it’s crape. Do some googling and you’ll see.