The Balboa Park Rose Garden

Today I felt I needed change in my diet. Why it was the fist day of spring in San Diego. Balboa Park beckoned so I didn't even shave, since the Roses at the Balboa Garden would not care how I looked. Little did I know that Steve Smith was giving my Roses a haircut.
   At about nine o'clock I had left  the downtown "Y' and the Manager Thomas sent me on my way with a  cup of complimentary  coffee. I walked a few blocks east for the Number 7 bus. I met a muscle bound gentleman and struck up a conversation.
   "I left home and worked on merchant ships until I hurt my back. I received $900 a month and use it for food and my 24 Hour Fitness membership. Originally I was from Boston."
   May I ask where you going now?
   "Every Monday and Thursday, I get a free breakfast at the church on 25th and University. I am waiting for the number 15 bus. Sometimes I eat at the Salvation Army but their meal is not close to the meal offered at the church. (The 15 bus comes every thirty minutes and drops  you off at State College.)
   My number 7 arrived and I tapped my Compass card while getting aboard. The bus driver ignored me when I bid him a "good morning". My first stop would be the Rose Garden to the east of the bridge. My stop was one before the Zoo on Park Blvd.
  I sat down on logs to the south of the cactus garden. Their thorns reminded me of my girl friend Shelly Feltnot. If you touch them it bleeds, but wait awhile and the thorns turn to flowers. One might say they are bipolar. You might say they are bipolar. I had brought along a herring sandwich, four eggs, and two bananas. Over me a mighty Elm peered down.
   "I am tired of eating all of these nuts. Can you throw an egg up at me?"
   It felt fishy that a tree would speak to me. Scared, I branched off south to the Rose Garden. Four years ago, I made the Garden of Roses my home away from home. The Roses served as food for my tired soul. Besides they looked divine and produced a nice scent. Each Rose bed had a different name. Some beds were named  Betty Boop, Apricot Drift, Ice Berg, Dick Clark and a host of others.
   I noticed a man giving a haircut to some of the Rose Bushes.
   "Guess you are cutting the deadwood."
   "Yes, the vines without buds must go. As you can see they are doing just fine after the rain we had a week ago. Raccoon and some ground squirrels give me most of my problems. They eat away at the Roses."
   Now since my reader might be getting bored, I lumped his story into two paragraphs. Steve Smith dressed in blue and wore black gloves. Thin and neat, no motion went wasted as he cut and cut away.
   "I moved here in 1955. I had served in Vietnam and lived in Japan. I worked for a company here that put up the statue of the sailor kissing the nurse next to the Midway. Originally, a traveling company had placed the couple here but they soon went out of business. In about 2006, the Port Authority of San Diego and Midway came up with the money to build the statue as you see it. Also, I was in charge of the Bob Hope exhibit right next to it. Connie Stevens, Norm Crosby and Rachel Welsh came to the unveiling of the Bob Hope Memorial.
   "I began living here in 1955. The weather then was much cooler but I don't mind. I have three children and thirteen grand ones. I divorced about twenty five years ago. Well I got to go now, my Japanese friend is coming over."
   From the Rose Garden I marched to the senior center but found it closed. To my chagrin, I found out it was closed due to a talent show at the Balboa Club.  My next blog will be about the senior citizen talent show.