[Community_garden] National embarrassment

[Mike McGrath]

"Get a horse!"

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Conrad" <fred.conrad at acfb.org>
To: <community_garden at list.communitygarden.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 10:05 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] National embarrassment


> An aside:
>
> Sad to say, I'm about to risk making a very bad impression on some British 
> gardeners.
>
> I give community garden tours to people.  I've been doing it for years. 
> I'm very casual about the whole thing, usually I ask them to pick me up at 
> my house and we hit three or four gardens in the immediate area. 
> Community organizers who are about to try their hand at community gardens 
> really need to see a few, meet some gardeners, talk about the issues 
> before they get too far along.  I've done tours for community gardeners 
> from other cities and countries who happen to be in town and want to check 
> out Atlanta's gardening scene, some funders, some researchers.  Probably 
> we all have.
>
> Since my car really sucks, I always ask the visitors to drive.  I paid 
> more for my rototiller than I did for my car.  The headliner is gone, and 
> the foamy stuff that it left behind randomly rains down like dandruff onto 
> the passengers.  Two of the door handles are broken off on the outside and 
> two are broken off from the inside.  It smells like someone spilled coffee 
> in it, several times, because they did.  Not the acidic coffee grounds of 
> this list, but the kind mixed with half and half.  When you turn on the 
> vent fan, little bits of dried leaves and acorns blow out.  When you pull 
> away too fast from a stop light the front seats lay down and you speed 
> through the intersection laying on your back looking at the car dandruff 
> instead of traffic.  The back seat is full of straw.  It's not good.
>
> So I was contacted by the Chancellor of Newcastle (and entourage), in 
> northern England, about a tour.  We set it up for this afternoon, and the 
> weather is going to be stunning.  Naturally I assumed they'd have a rental 
> car, or a diplomatic limousine, or something.  Just now they mentioned 
> that they'll be arriving by taxi.  We don't have time to walk to the 
> gardens, so I'm in a very bad spot.  My wife said I can't bring them into 
> the house, either, because it's a wreck, so there's no recovering from the 
> bad car by showing off a nice other thing.
>
> I should have bought the riding sulky for my rototiller.
>
>
> Fred Conrad
> Community Garden Coordinator
> Atlanta Community Food Bank
> 732 Joseph E Lowery Blvd, NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
> ph: 678.553.5932 fx: 678.553.5933
> fred.conrad at acfb.org    <http://www.acfb.org>
> Our mission is to fight hunger by engaging, educating and empowering our 
> community.
>
>
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