Landscape revisited

We're expecting another storm tonight. Snow always makes me think back to my college days of working as a landscaper for the university, to memories of plowing snow into the late hours, overdosing on coffee and swallowing down packages of honey roasted peanuts to keep up my energy. I'm reminded of rainy days spent singing in the break room, sunburns and poison ivy, gardens and green grass.

An old video of my boss (on L), a coworker, and me singing Galileo

I will never love a job more. I belonged in that worn down red barn with those worn out old men, most of them half blind or half drunk. In those three years that I worked at Landscape I brought my camera to work often and photographed them.

















I know I blog about this place a lot. If you've read my blog for any period of time you've probably heard the stories of these men. There's something about a memory that you can still feel. When I look at these photos I smell cigarettes and the faint hint of whiskey. I smell George's lack of cleanliness, his overpowering stench which later found him being forced to shower during work hours by order of management. I smell the grass and the snow and the cow barns.

I'm different now from the college girl in the video. Instead of waiting for the snow to fall and staying awake all night to plow the campus I am staying off the roads and staying awake all night to comfort my newborn. But every time I breathe in the fresh smell of newly fallen snow I am back here, at Landscape, reliving memories that I will take with me forever.