Wow, well, mine is a third Neighbor story!
A neighbor lady up the street was friends with my parents, and we had occasion to visit her house. I'd always liked to "muck around" in ponds, puddles and with land snails and such. I'd brought back buckets of tadpoles to observe for a few days before returning them to their pond.
However, when I saw Mrs. JB's aquariums, I just KNEW what I was really after. This was in the early to mid 70's, when some colored gravels were just becoming widely available. SHE, however, had this fabulously classy mix of black and white sand. I was mesmerized with her 2 aquariums, and lapped up every detail of what was in them. The white sand was white quartz, and the black was volcanic basalt sand she had brought back from a Hawiian beach she and her husband had visited years before. Her tanks glowed green from live plants. It was such a far cry from the bare bottomed or pink-gravelled tanks I saw in the only LFS I had access to....... and her guppies and dwarf african frogs looked so happy and healthy among their plants. I was smitten. I thank the Couponing Club for helping my interest too. This was during the rivalry of supermarkets "doubling" manufacturer's coupons. A group of ladies from the neighborhood would carpool over to a local church, where a few dozen of them got together monthly to trade coupons. I would tag along for the evening, and endure the tediously long swap event just for those few minutes of staring into JB's aquariums when we stopped to pick her up. I remember staring at the glowing green tanks, trying to imprint everything to memory in those few precious minutes. And it was WORTH it!
Years later, after much futile begging for an aquarium, I finally forced the issue by bringing home two carnival-prize goldfish. My parents were NOT pleased, but didn't have the heart to let the creatures suffer. Plus, I repeatedly pointed out that I hadn't done what my friend had done - SHE won and consequently brought home a RABBIT! How mature of me to have not even played THAT carnival game, knowing a rabbit was out of the question! So, I got a 2 gallon fishbowl. It was a start. After showing how serious I was by checking out LOTs of aquarium and fish books out of the library, I argued the case that the bowl was too small. Enter the 10 gallon aquarium.
I just shake my head when I think back on those days. Also, with Mrs. JB's guidance, I actually had some encouraging early success with plants. She gave me plantlets from her large-lobed Water Sprite. Thinking back to that early setup, those plants must have been indestructible, LOL! But, to this day, that plant has a special place in my heart for being my first foray into aquatic plants. I lapped up every morsel of information she gave me, and I only realize now how gently she steered me away from potential disasters of my own making!
I feel very lucky to have had a mentor of sorts! Thanks Mrs. Joyce B!
-Jane |