Readers share tales of treasured family plants.
GUARDING THE GARDEN
One of my fondest memories of my late grandmother comes from the afternoon I learned that she owned a Red Ryder BB Gun, the exact model made famous in A Christmas Story. I was helping her set the dinner table when I noticed it lying across one of the chairs pushed into the corner of the room. When I asked her why she owned a Red Ryder BB Gun, she very proudly told me she used it to shoot the squirrels when they got into the bird feeder. I couldn’t believe it; my 80-plus-year-old grandmother, shooting squirrels with her BB gun. It’s a wonder she didn’t shoot her eye out!
The squirrels were a constant threat to her bird feeder and to her precious flowerbeds nearby. My
