Saturday, September 21, 2013 – Tater Tires
This evening I went with my husband, Laur, for our after supper walk. Currently it takes us along a roadway of mass destruction. “Super-what-a-mess” I call it. Yet in a year from now, I won’t even be able to imagine how muddled things presently look.
At the corner of Loach’s Rd. and Lady Ashley Ct., there is a blasting mat made from discarded tires. I cannot resist. I always say “Hi!” to them, and would give them an affectionate pat if hubs wasn’t with me. (He doesn’t need any more evidence that I am crazy.) You see, I feel as if I know them. That at one point I had great plans for them. Here is the back-story.
Once upon a time we had a series of student boarders – and at least one or two of them had “cars.” I italicize the word because some of these steel beauties were more like go-carts than cars. No matter – our vehicles met that description too. All of them went from A to B and back – sometimes via a tow truck – with most of their pieces still attached.
Every year or two a boarder would graduate from the school and from us, and often leave behind some of the things they no longer needed. This list is long and at times curious – but we, the landlords, didn’t much care as long as the junk could be given away, recycled, or taken to the landfill site.
A popular thing to leave behind was sets of tires – usually four, and usually balding. We honestly didn’t know what to do with them. Once when Laur was cleaning out the garage (and this is not a regular occurrence, trust me,) he got to counting them. I think we were up to 16.
It was the year I was attempting to become an inventive gardener – I like to try something new every year. And I had found a website that showed Laur how he could use old tires to grow potatoes - and delighted in telling him that we could get 20 pounds of potatoes out of just one stack of tires! Just think what we could do with eight stacks!!!
The idea of trimming wheels and filling them with compost and earth was not Laur’s idea of how he wanted to spend the rest of the weekend. “Jannie,” he said, “You can buy 20 pounds of potatoes for five dollars. And what are we going to do with 160 pounds of potatoes?” He called a tire shop and they said they’d take the tires for free if they had rims, and for a small fee if they didn’t. He filled up the van and off went my dream of discovering my Irish potato-farming roots. (I don’t know what I’ve been spared, of course.)
A few days later, our current boarder at that time, Bea (not her real name,) asked us if we had seen her winter tires… They were brand new… She had asked if she could store them in our garage… Ooops! Hubs called the person he’d taken the tires to and the lad said he could probably find them if we could provide him with the serial number. Fortunately Bea had taken a picture of it, and within a day she had her tires back. Phew!
Bea too has since moved out and become a top flight Fitness Advisor. I expect by now her then-new tires have joined their Loach’s Road buddies as a blasting mat. And me, I’m no longer interested in gardening. And the only spare tires that concern me now are the ones I’m trying not to accumulate on my waist.
At the corner of Loach’s Rd. and Lady Ashley Ct., there is a blasting mat made from discarded tires. I cannot resist. I always say “Hi!” to them, and would give them an affectionate pat if hubs wasn’t with me. (He doesn’t need any more evidence that I am crazy.) You see, I feel as if I know them. That at one point I had great plans for them. Here is the back-story.
Once upon a time we had a series of student boarders – and at least one or two of them had “cars.” I italicize the word because some of these steel beauties were more like go-carts than cars. No matter – our vehicles met that description too. All of them went from A to B and back – sometimes via a tow truck – with most of their pieces still attached.
Every year or two a boarder would graduate from the school and from us, and often leave behind some of the things they no longer needed. This list is long and at times curious – but we, the landlords, didn’t much care as long as the junk could be given away, recycled, or taken to the landfill site.
A popular thing to leave behind was sets of tires – usually four, and usually balding. We honestly didn’t know what to do with them. Once when Laur was cleaning out the garage (and this is not a regular occurrence, trust me,) he got to counting them. I think we were up to 16.
It was the year I was attempting to become an inventive gardener – I like to try something new every year. And I had found a website that showed Laur how he could use old tires to grow potatoes - and delighted in telling him that we could get 20 pounds of potatoes out of just one stack of tires! Just think what we could do with eight stacks!!!
The idea of trimming wheels and filling them with compost and earth was not Laur’s idea of how he wanted to spend the rest of the weekend. “Jannie,” he said, “You can buy 20 pounds of potatoes for five dollars. And what are we going to do with 160 pounds of potatoes?” He called a tire shop and they said they’d take the tires for free if they had rims, and for a small fee if they didn’t. He filled up the van and off went my dream of discovering my Irish potato-farming roots. (I don’t know what I’ve been spared, of course.)
A few days later, our current boarder at that time, Bea (not her real name,) asked us if we had seen her winter tires… They were brand new… She had asked if she could store them in our garage… Ooops! Hubs called the person he’d taken the tires to and the lad said he could probably find them if we could provide him with the serial number. Fortunately Bea had taken a picture of it, and within a day she had her tires back. Phew!
Bea too has since moved out and become a top flight Fitness Advisor. I expect by now her then-new tires have joined their Loach’s Road buddies as a blasting mat. And me, I’m no longer interested in gardening. And the only spare tires that concern me now are the ones I’m trying not to accumulate on my waist.