Watering Flowers During a Pandemic

Before the coronavirus shut things down, Jennifer was a volunteer with the Trenton Circus Squad, driving kids to and from an after-school program at the Roebling Wire Works building in Trenton and helping to provide adult supervision. The pandemic temporarily closed off that opportunity, and Jennifer also lost her retirement gig at McCarter Theatre when performances were halted indefinitely.

So when a friend in town told us about a volunteer opportunity that did not involve congregating with groups of other people, we signed right up. A non-profit called Lawrenceville Main Street plants flowers each spring in baskets attached to the lamp posts along Main Street. They typically hire interns during the summer to water the planters, but with Main Street businesses either closed or taking in greatly reduced revenues, the group couldn’t afford interns this year and was looking for volunteers to do the watering.

So every Thursday morning Jennifer and I drive downtown and retrieve a golf cart from the garage of one of the local businesses. In the back are two big plastic storage tubs filled with water. We drive the cart down Main Street, stopping at each of the planters to water them. When we’re finished we circle back to the Lawrenceville Main Street office and use a hose attached to their outside faucet to refill the tubs, then return the golf cart to the garage.

Jennifer and I have such disparate interests that, for all the time we spend together, we’re almost always doing different things. This is one of the few activities we actually do together. And since it’s all outdoors and involves just the two of us, we don’t need to wear masks or worry about social distancing.

I’ll miss it when the growing season is over.