people of the corn

Back in Brooklyn, I decided to go to J&A fabrics in Bay Ridge to buy muslin (where it cost only 2.50 per yard.) Afterwards we came across Sally's Coffee Shop on the corner of 3rd and 85th. Oh the smokey baba ganoush was satisfying! Our waitress appeared to like children and asked us where we were from. (Is it possible she misses the school kids who come up from Ft. Hamilton High when school is in session?) When I replied "Windsor Terrace" and told her where we lived she made a surprised face and seemed to know exactly where it was. It turns out the waitress lives in our neighborhood and has been growing corn in her side yard for years. She was the first person I'd seen do that, and I think she definitely influenced me in my attempts to grow it this year. But it seems I could use a lesson from her. She's already harvested and eaten the 5 ears her 2 plants grew, and mine don't look like they'll yield at all. Too little sun in the alley.

This had me thinking, next year, why don't I just clear out the front yard for corn. In my mind's eye I can imagine it, a surprise mini cornfield in a little square lot. It turns out this has been tried before. My neighbor told me Old Man Joe Rappa, who used to own this house, had the yard planted entirely in corn one year. Just before he was able to harvest his crop, someone somehow got over the high, sharp metal fence and picked it all. He didn't try it again after that, the next year he put in a single tree. That was the tree that was here when we moved in, a weeping birch full of the moonlight and I'd say more than a hint of the melancholy, silver standing in after all the corn's sunniness had been kidnapped. It's probably time to try the corn again.