FORM VS. FUNCTION

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LAST LAUGH

Marv, who runs a trailer Park on the shores of Lake Michigan, can do just about anything with his front-loader, including gardening. His skill with heavy equipment dates back to service in World War II, when he and his fellow Sea-bees would follow our invading armed forces, and, with the help of bulldozers, plywood, and baling wire, would construct an airstrip, complete with control tower, within an hour of landing. In the old debate about form vs. function — for Marv — function wins every time. If a six-foot-diameter cable spool looks like a table, it is plumped down on the beach for the convenience of overnight campers. If tree trunks or stumps catch blowing sand and stabilize the beach, they are promptly added to our seascape. Viewed from the water, half a mile out, the beach has a certain derelict, abandoned-island charm.

Anyhow, Marv's best friend Poppa was busy spading-up an unused corner of the grounds for a vegetable garden when Marv rumbled over in the front-loader.

"Where you been?" Poppa asked.

"Down to the beach. Those wise-guy kids on their ATVs have been roaring along the shoreline, making a pest of themselves again."

"Did you talk to them?"

"Naw, I just raised a hill of sand from the lake to the bluff: Trapped them on the other side. What're you trying to do?"

"Start a garden patch."

"Well, shoot, I'll fix you up in no time." So Marv lowered his bucket and scraped the plot clean, shaving three inches below the surface. The newly scalped landscape, being near the lake, was, as you might imagine, very sandy.

"Looks pretty sandy," Poppa allowed, as he stared at the thirty by forty foot garden-to-be. "Needs some body."

"How about turkey doo?" Marv replied. "My son just got a whole truckload of turkey droppings that they used to grow mushrooms in. I can spread a layer of that stuff over your patch and you won't have to dig or nothin'."

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