Ahead of Their Time

My grandparents, Nina and Lionel, moved to Hemet, California in the late 1960s. They bought a top-of-the-line, double-wide mobile home, and purchased a lot in the Sierra Dawn retirement community. Hemet is located in the beautiful Hemet Valley, only an hour from Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Park. It was a great solution for hard working folks ready to retire. Great weather, and a great community.

Many of these folks had decided to retire their lawn mowers as part of their retirement. Instead of lawns, they put in rocks and gravel. There were several popular colors, typically beige, rust, red, and green. They decorated with an assortment of lawn ornaments. A few people planted a tree or shrub, or some cacti and succulents for a little green. But most of them liberated themselves from the burden of yard work forever. 

Gravel replaces lawns for time and water savings

When our family visited Grandma and Grandpa, from lush rainy Alaska, we couldn't help noticing the gravel yards, decorated with flamingos, trolls, woodland creatures, and the like. Quite appealing to us kids: there was definitely a grandparent vibe going on. But we could not help snickering at the neighbors out in their yards reverse-vacuuming their gravel (this was before the era of leaf blowers). The whole scenario seemed hilarious to us – to be out in your tiny rock yard vacuuming.

Now, looking back over 50 years and with an adult perspective, I'm thinking these folks were ahead of their time! Sure, their motivation was cutting down on yard work. But they were on to something! Now, we're cutting back on lawns, to cut down on water use. Luckily we have more options for our lawn-free yards, but I think these forward thinking seniors paved the way for our activities today!