By Jim Hagarty
2007
The recent rain has been hailed as a good thing for the crops. We haven’t exactly suffered drought conditions this summer but things were getting a bit parched.
In my neighbourhood, I must say, it’s been a very good growing season. The flattened pop can crops along sidewalks and parking lots have not been stilted by the shortage of precipitation. Likewise, clear plastic water bottles, many still half full, have popped up like wildflowers everywhere, decorating the landscape with the glints of the sun that reflect off their shiny surfaces. The rows on rows of potato chip bags are much improved over last year when the quantity was noticeably down.
But most encouraging has been the comeback of the shopping cart crops that seemed to have withered in the recent past.
The colourful growths – sturdy and standing as much as four feet tall – come in a variety of bright colours this year. And they can mostly be found in alleyways and parking lots, sometimes appearing overnight on front lawns. It is difficult to know, sometimes, who has sown the shopping carts as no one ever seems to claim them.
So, one day two weeks ago, my family and I decided to harvest some of them, as they seemed in danger of becoming overripe. My son grabbed a dark green one, my daughter a bright green one and we started off to return them to the east end malls from where it seemed likely the shopping cart seeds had originated. Alas, the young ones began complaining, as we marched along the main street of town in full view of four lanes of traffic, that the stores might think we had stolen the carts – and drivers (some of whom we probably knew) might also entertain strange thoughts.
This had not occurred to me, so I hung back, to disassociate myself from the cart pushers ahead of me. Alas, however, a third cart was spotted – a brilliant red one – and soon I was trudging along pushing the fruits of my labour too. Eventually, amidst much whining, complaining and self-pity (the kids objected too), we arrived at our destination and deposited our harvest at the appropriate locations.
We hope to find our reward in Heaven as there appeared precious little immediate recompense for our good deeds. Another scenario was suggested, again, one that I hadn’t thought of in my do-gooder haste. If the people growing the cart crops around our house know we’ll return them, won’t that just encourage them to bring home more? Since when did they start teaching logic in the schools?
Since then, like hay that comes back after its first cutting in June, the carts have returned, as lush as ever. But now we walk by them, hoping some other family might take up the harvest. We are kept busy enough, as it is, reaping the wild coffee cup and the yellow donut box, and the occasional fast-food bag.
We even took in two boxes of empty beer bottles from a lot next door. These we returned to the beer store without hesitation and realized a $6 return for our good deed!
Harvest time is my favourite season.
