Mrs. Spears

I wrote this awhile back after a friend and I were talking about our respective childhoods and the similarities we shared. He and I both used to mow lawns to earn money. During that conversation I related this story about a widowed woman whose lawn I used to mow.
Mrs. Spears

I started cutting her lawn after my grandfather and I had done some electrical work at her house. She mentioned to my grandfather that she needed someone to cut her lawn. Of course I was always on the look out for a new client so I agreed to start mowing her lawn the next day.

You see I had a long list of items I had thoroughly priced and researched and drooled over at the local dime store. I was always in need of an extra job or client so I could afford to feed my piggy bank for savings and still have enough money left over to save up for a set of "army men" or other such important nonsense.

Seeing as I had a tally of expenditures a normal boy my age had to keep up with, such as string, comic books, BB's or if I had extra money I could splurge and buy pellets instead of BB's and of course we also had a local drugstore that sold ice cream cones and sodas, well anyway, you get the picture, at that age the lucrative mowing business was about all I could get in to.

Well back to dear Mrs. Spears....it always took me two days to mow her lawn and it was the smallest lawn on my list. Each time I would arrive, I would no sooner get started when Mrs. Spears would show up on the porch with fresh baked cookies and lemonade. She would always say I was working too hard and that it was time to take a break.

The conversation would usually begin with polite questions from Mrs. Spears and she would find some way to weave a story from "the old days" around some answer I had given to one of her questions. By the time she was done with her story for the day, she would insist it was too hot to finish working and insist that I should finish the next day. The second day she would usually let me finish mowing without much interruption and there were always cookies when I was done.

Now after I had finished mowing and raking I would always water the person's plants to give it that extra little touch you know. When I would finish with Mrs. Spears' yard I would go up on her porch where she would usually be waiting for me again with cookies. She would reach into a small leather coin purse that was trimmed with brass and had an old worn brass clasp. I remember it to this day, I remember her long weathered fingers searching her coin purse for just the right amount.

I will always remember and treasure her kind, pleasant smile, the sparkle in her otherwise tired eyes as she would pay me. She would fish out the correct payment amount and her feeble hand shaking with age would place a dime firmly in the palm of my hand and then her smile turned more radiant and beaming. She was always so pleased to pay me. Yes that's right...just in case you missed it...I did say dime!

She would pay me a dime and happily tell me that I could go to the corner market and buy 2 pieces of gum and a soda. Well, the corner market had been closed for many years by that time. I do not recall the exact price of soda back then, but I do remember Bazooka Joe bubble gum cost 2 cents a piece at that time. I remember my utter disbelief the first time she paid me but I would by no means have ever dreamed of complaining to her, or any adult for that matter. I did tell my parents about the meager income from Mrs. Spears but they didn't really comment one way or another other then to remind me of her age.

Now some of the lawns I cut were big business to me....back then anyway. I would get two dollars maybe even five dollars for a large lawn and a few extra chores. However I didn't quit, there was always something about this dear sweet woman that seemed to make up for the lack of monetary payment....besides, there were always cookies and lemonade.

I remember Mrs. Spears seemed to be a refined woman. Always neat, well dressed, her house was very well appointed, it was a mansion to me at that age and life experience level. In her stories she did speak of travel and luxury...well the luxury of those days anyway. I got lost in her stories and was amazed that the frail old woman telling me the stories actually lived out those same adventures.

I mowed her lawn and ate cookies with her for about two and a half years. One day I remember my dad telling me that I wouldn't have to mow Mrs. Spears lawn that week. Two weeks went by and my dad again told me that I would not be mowing Mrs. Spears lawn anymore. I went on about my childhood as children will, not thinking much of what it meant to not mow her lawn anymore. I knew I would miss her fresh baked cookies and that was probably my deepest thought on the subject back then.

Mrs. Spears had lived several miles away and I would get to her house on my bike pulling a cart my grandfather had made. So after I stopped mowing her lawn I didn't really see much of her house after that. I have one final distinct memory though.....I was about 16 and I had my driver's license, I was driving around wasting gas as my mother would have said, when I drove down a familiar street and there in front of me was one of the saddest sites I had seen. Mrs. Spears house was boarded up and had obviously been so for many, many years. There was dirt where her lawn had been, all of her plants and flowers were gone. All the things I had been a part of as she shared her life with me were gone. It dawned on me that she had passed away when I was told I would no longer be mowing her lawn.

I had the saddest most empty feeling. I drove to the river and sat there letting the river wash my thoughts for a very long time. It is odd the effect certain things or certain people have on you. Even if you are not aware of them at the time. Well I only got paid a dime for her lawn but in retrospect she paid me in currency much more valuable then money. Currency I could never earn or even comprehend at the time. She paid me in stories, in the rich history of her past and the past of our nation, she paid me in lessons of human kindness and dignity, lessons of patience, lessons of loneliness and companionship and of course she paid me in home made cookies and lemonade :)

Thank you Mrs. Spears.



Otter