New listing, Gilliam Lane

6 Gilliam Lane, built in 2009, 0.64-acres, $7.150 million. It looks nice enough, but I miss the former 1949 house with a yard entirely planted in pachysandra; many, many years ago, my mother suggested to the owner that she and her husband (a long-retired geologist with a major oil company) chose that landscaping to avoid mowing. “Well, yes”, the then 80-something-year-old replied, but then confided “actually Carl and I like to go out into the backyard and make love in it under the moonlight”. I don’t know why they preferred that to fescue or an air mattress, but long after that couple had passed, I still gave their memory an admiring chuckle as I drove by.

We had more interesting people in Riverside back then.