Platoons of Little White People
Some of the better off people in my neighborhood, like the guy who appears in a popular public TV production (and the hottie across and slightly down the street from him), can afford to hire "landscapers" to take care of their yards. Thus on a regular basis, Brewster and I, who spend quite a bit of time walking around the neighborhood, checking out the sights and smells, see platoons of little brown people scurrying around these people's lawns.
Yes, I know that sounds a bit racist. I also know that I have a son who has worked as a landscaper, so the stereotype isn't completely true. None-the-less, the vast majority of landscapers in my neighborhood are somewhat more swarthy than your average Anglo Saxon person, whose family has lived in the U.S. for half a dozen generations...or more. As nearly as I can tell, they aren't speaking English to each other either. I have no problem with that. That's just how things are in the suburbs north of Boston.
So it was quite interesting to me when YSOP assigned my mission trip group to be a landscape crew one day. After a long subway ride out from the center of Washington, D.C., and a bit of a walk, we found ourselves in front of a building managed by Mr. Barry. He has a last name, but I forget it. He likes to be called Barry, but, given that he's clearly the boss of his domain, he is "Mr. Barry" to us lesser folks.
Mr. Barry manages a transition home, Milestone Place, housing about 35 people for an organization called Community Family Life Service. He is quite strict with them: no loud noise; no drugs; no alcohol; no overnight visitors; clean up after yourself in common areas; etc. Mr. Barry doesn't take crap from anyone. If you leave your dirty dishes in the sink, figuring you'll do them later, you'll find them in the dumpster.
But, Mr. Barry had a problem. He doesn't have much of a budget for upkeep. If you don't keep a place up, the tenants soon get slack and things go to the dogs...so to speak. Mr. Barry, however, is a very smart man. He has found a solution to his problem: volunteers.
Yup, Mr. Barry gets volunteers to come out to his place and do maintenance of various sorts. Sometimes it's painting, sometimes repair, sometimes cleaning. For my group, mostly teenage girls, we were to do "yard work". We began with mowing the lawn and trimming the edges. We also did quite a bit of weeding and some general trash pick up in the parking lot. As I was pushing the lawn mower around, I suddenly realized how smart Mr. Barry was. Whereas my neighbors, like the public TV personality (and the hottie across and slightly down the street from him), have to pay good money to get little brown people to keep up their yards, Mr. Barry can get a platoon of little white people to keep up his yard for free.
He had something over 1700 volunteers last year, and expects to have even more this coming year to keep things neat and tidy for him. Don't take my word for it. Go visit Mr. Barry. You'll see a picture of the girls and me on his wall, along with pictures of the other several thousand volunteers he's had work for him over the past few years. Just don't forget to bring a rake, broom, or paint brush with you.
