A running joke in my family has been to compare my father to the “Edward Scissorhands” of movie fame, our tongue-in-cheek reference to his…how to put this delicately…less than stellar history, shall we say, with the hedge trimmer. 

There were several instances of nearly mangled bushes, the time when he cut all the flowers off the lilac shrub by mistake - and, the all-time classic, the day when the power suddenly cut out in mid-trim, causing my father to frantically gesture that one of us must have knocked the cord out of the outlet, only to find it lying there, severed in half, on the grass.

Talk about a trip down memory lane…

I was recently invited to attend one of Lindenhurst School District’s LEFT for Juniors field trips, “LEFT” standing for “Lindenhurst Environmental Field Trip.” This program, an outgrowth of the original (designed for high school Advanced Placement Biology students), is geared especially to the elementary school’s 4th graders. It was founded in the early 1980’s by one innovator, Mr. Lee Paseltiner, Lindenhurst High School teacher and adviser.

“This is the time to remember, ‘cause it will not last forever. These are the days to hold on to, ‘cause we won’t although we’ll want to.”

Poetry. Pure poetry.

Those lyrics, from Billy Joel’s poignant This Is The Time, played incessantly at my senior prom, having been designated as the “official prom song” for the Lindenhurst High School Class of 2000. It was ironic, even back then, that a bunch of 17 and 18-year-olds would select anything but the most modern, up-to-date hit to capture their little moment in time.

I’m beginning to think that neither I, nor anyone in my family, should ever entertain the thought of traveling farther than the corner store again - maybe not even that far.

On a recent road trip to Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania – just outside Lewisburg – to attend the high school graduation of a close family friend, we became victims of what can only be adequately described as “the trip from hell.”