King of the Hill

One week ago, I ran an eight mile route along the Boston Marathon course and over Newton's "rolling hills." I legit laughed-out-loud when I recalled that one of my DFMC teammates named my three favorite hills, "Whine," "Bleep," and "Moan." I censored the name of the second hill because it is my responsibility as an Event Compliance Officer to ensure that Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is represented in a positive light.

I was in the mood for a slight change of pace last Thursday, so I completed most of my run on the soft, grassy area along the carriage path. My joints really thanked me after my workout.

Grandma Higgins was definitely in my thoughts during that run. I recalled this game that she used to play with us in her backyard. She called it, "King of the Hill." As children, we we rarely bored at Grandma's house. Her yard was located on a major hill in Worcester and it consisted of several different "levels." The front part of the yard near the gate contained a mammoth Oak tree and Forsythia bushes. Once inside the fence, there was a long row of Hostas followed by tomato plants on the left and room for the dog to run around on the right. The chair swing was located just next to the deck. We sat on that swing for hours, sipping lemonade and swapping stories. There was a picnic table with an umbrella on the deck, and a set of stairs brought you up to the next level consisting of a small grassy knoll and a stone wall. Petunias and impatients were scattered in flower pots along the wall. My grandmother used to ask us to cut the grass using her push lawnmower. Sometimes we'd use the pinching shears or the scissors. I never had a lawn at my own home in Worcester, so we were always thrilled to help Grandma with this task.

The stairs continued up the hill. I'd guess that there were probably fifteen or sixteen stairs to get to the "backyard." On the right, my grandmother kept a rock garden. Looking back, I'm not entirely sure why she would ask us to water the rock garden. I suppose it was because there was usually a stray piece of rhubarb growing there. The next level was our favorite part of Grandma's "secret garden." It contained a swingset and was once part of the Green Family Estate. We used to dig there hoping to find buried treasure. We once found a Roy Rogers cap gun and various other china pieces. My dad used to display our treasures in an antique case in his hardware store. At the top of the hill, there was another miniature hill. It was more like a big mound of dirt that was never used to level out the top of the garden. My grandmother used to time us to see how long it would take us to get from the bottom of her yard to the top of the hill. I'd race my sisters with the high hope of being dubbed "King of the Hill" by my grandmother, but the dog would always win.

I repeated the words "King of the Hill" over and over in my mind until I reached the top of Heartbreak Hill during my run last Thursday.