Idle Minutes

My wife gets her gardening tendencies from her dad. He’s eighty-something and still manages a large garden each year. How large? Among a myriad of other vegetables, he has at least 120 tomato plants each season.

Thaaaaaat’s a bunch of tomatoes!

We get our share of the Famous Rivermont Tomatoes from Rome, Georgia each year (thank goodness!).

Rivermont happens to be the name of the neighborhood where they live in Rome. So I call them Rivermont Tomatoes. They’re famous because they are exceptionally tasty, BIG tomatoes, and because of what he does with them.

You see, he gives them away. He just shows up, whether the lucky recipients are home or not, and delivers the goods. Many come home from errands or work to find a bucket full of Hubert’s tomatoes in their carport. No need to leave a note. It’s like the rain in a drought. They know where it comes from and they’re relieved to see it.

The recipients are relieved because there are lots of people on “The List”. Demand is high. The chosen get pretty nervous if they don’t get their tomato delivery as usual each season.

Many start calling early, before he even plants, to make sure they are still on The List. Of course, they have some other reason to call, they just ask about their list status in passing.

Yeah right! They’re free tomatoes for cryin’ out loud!

Tweeedle tweeedle, Tweeedle tweeedle…

“Hello?”

“Hi Hubert. Bob. How ya been doin’?

“Pretty good Bob…watchin’ the Super Bowl right now. Just fed the beagles during halftime and noticed one of the pups had…”

“Am I still on The List?”

“uh, why sure Bob. I won’t be planting for a couple of months though.”

“OK, thanks…just wanted to make sure…lookin’ forward to gettin’ my tomatoes ya know. Glad you’re doin’ well. Enjoy the game.”

Click.

The Power of Free Tomatoes…
Fortunately, Hubert understands people after 80+ years of being around them. He knows they’re just home grown tomato addicts that are haunted by a lack of ‘maters in the winter. So he doesn’t mind the early calls. Besides, the calls keep him motivated and happy that he’s appreciated by folks.

Gardening, and particularly those tomatoes, have made Hubert and a lot of other people feel good over the years. Funny how small things are really big things in disguise.