Redneck Hiro: The Story of the Missing Leaves

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Story of the Missing Leaves

I was working at L & M Nursery in 1967. My job was landscaping. That is what I went to Tokyo Agricultural University to do. One day we were working in the yards of some model houses in a development. The construction company we dealt with built 3,000 houses a month. We landscaped the front yard of every house they sold. We installed plants and seeded yards. For about six to ten houses that were the model houses, we used better materials (like sod instead of seeds). Back at the nursery, I loaded many nice plants, bushes and trees on a two ton open bed truck and trailer and packed them full. Starting out, I drove very carefully because I was hauling nice plants but when I got on the Santa Ana freeway, I had to go fast. I had to take two more freeways to get to my destination. If you go too slow on the freeway, Californians hate it and open their windows and give you a special greeting with their hand that looks kind of like a phoenix. So I tried to keep up with the speed everybody else was driving which was about 70 mph. George Ishii, my foreman was waiting for me at the job site. We landscaped a lot together. When I got there, George stood at the side of the truck looking at the plants and shaking his head. He yelled, "NOT A *&%#@! *&%! LEAF LEFT ON THESE PLANTS! HOW FAST DID YOU DRIVE?" I answered him, "Slower than usual." "HOW FAST DID YOU DRIVE??" He bellowed. "About 70 mph" George thundered, "THOSE GREENHOUSE GROWN PLANTS ARE TENDER!!! YOU SHOULD HAVE COVERED THEM UP!!!" WE HAVE A DEADLINE OF TOMORROW AND WE'RE NEVER GOING TO MAKE IT!!! YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO WORK ALL NIGHT TO GET THIS JOB DONE!" I told him, "I don't care." But I did care. I was one of their best landscapers and my crew always got the most work done in less time than anybody else. I grumbled, "%#$&*!" George ordered the same plants again. They finally got there about 4:30 in the afternoon. We worked late into the night planting all those trees and shrubs. I guess it was just one of those lessons of youth I had to learn the hard way...