Sitting in Alexandria’s City Hall a few weeks ago, I noticed a stand of bright green and somewhat strange looking plants. It turns out someone in Alexandria has grappled with the city’s agricultural and economic heritage and has planted tobacco on city property hither and yon.
While the plants at city hall have since been ripped up (there were looking awfully sad), the tobacco growing in Founder’s Park along the Potomac River (such as this specimen below) are looking much healthier.
I suspect that no one who would care much about the evils of tobacco — or about what a terrible influence it would be for our children to discover this stuff growing deliberately in city parks! — has found out about this. Or else they would be up in arms. But I like the very idea of honoring the plant that made the pre-independence colonies rich, and can see that once Jennifer and I have found a decent place to live somewhere outside of Washington, tobacco is going to have to be part of the great big herb and vegetable garden we’re planning. In addition to brewing beer, baking bread and roasting coffee, I can see I’m going to have to learn how to cure tobacco and roll cigars, too.
Sounds awesome.
On an unrelated note, the bicycle wheel I built with my very own hands has passed the 1,000-mile mark with no broken spokes. I’d of gotten there much sooner than last week, but I was laid-up with bronchitis for most of August.
11:50 am on September 6, 2005
