Early April Gardening Fever Leads to Death

It is early spring and Oaks Gardens is gone. It died and will be born again as Oaks Shopping Center. But fear not for lack of garden plants and supplies for Lowe's Home Improvements is just a hop, skip and a jump away. They seem to be ready to fill your gardening needs.

On the last day of March, there were already flowers, 

vegetables, 

herbs 

and plenty of garden supplies out in front of the store.

There were mostly cold hardy plants but be aware of each plant's hardiness.

I remember one year, a long time ago, I got gardening fever. It was just after moving into my first home in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. We had never had a garden in my parent's home in South Philly. So I wasn't savvy when it came to planting times.

It was very early April and I visited the nearby garden supply store in Glenside, PA. There before me were trays and trays of beautiful blooming plants. Plants that I just had to have. I was driven by desire and purchased quite a few impatiens and begonias. I spent a whole day spacing the pink, white and red plants perfectly in the front of my house. I stepped back and admired my labor and the beauty of the flowering plants.

Sometime around the sixth or seventh of the very same month a sudden snow materialized. Those tender plants were blanketed in pure fresh frozen whiteness.

All were lost.

I learned a lesson that year that I remember vividly to this day. Gardening fever may cloud your judgement and lead to death.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

The Water Tower = Bar in Oaks

Source:Facebook

Late last year I noticed an advertisement on my Facebook page for a new bar in the Market Place at Oaks complex. There aren't many bars in Oaks or within a four mile radius of the complex. So I was eager to check out this new opportunity.

The Water Tower is located next to Arnold's Family Fun Center.

 You are able to walk indoors from one to the other. 

Upon entering the bar, through the doors seen in the above photograph, I seemed to be in a vestibule to a bowling alley. The vestibule ran along the front of the building. I turned to the right and walked to the far end where I found two pool tables and some kind of four player air hockey table. 

There was an arch at that far end that led to several bowling alleys, illuminated by ultraviolet light (black light) and rotating disco-like color lights. Atop the pins were large screens upon which were projected 80's music videos. I think the disco lights and the projected moving images would be distracting. To me, anyway. I am old, you know.

Source:FaceBook

Source:FaceBook

I turned left and passed what was an area that separated the black light lit alleys from normally lit alleys. That area was a stage and dance floor where there was a seemingly successful New Year's Eve Party with The Sofa Kings band.

Just a few steps farther were the second set of alleys. There were still the large screens with projected music videos but the lighting was much closer to normal.

Most of the new decor is geared towards black light and doesn't show any signs of wear.

I tore my mesmerized eyes away from the bowling action turning to my left. Finally, there was the Water Tower. Lit with moose themed ceiling lights and black lights under the liquor bottles and splashing down under the bar on corrugated sheet metal. It was a square shaped bar with five stools on each of three sides. Not what you would call a huge bar. It wasn't the kind of bar with dark low ceilings that are comforting. It was more like a bar in the basement of Knights of Columbus I know in Roxborough - hard, noisy and without much thought to decorating. I take that back. There were the moose ceiling lights and the corrugated sheet metal under the bar.

Did I mention the red bicycle hanging over the bar?


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved