OPINION: In Praise of a Chain-Link Fence

by Cynthia Welte

Rosie, a raccoon, walked nonchalantly by us as we ate lunch within the yard early within the pandemic. She waddled beneath the weeping larch, up one facet of the chain-link fence, and proper down the opposite, headfirst down the six-foot metallic grid. Her palms and toes simply gripped the hyperlinks. We noticed her teats, swollen and sagging from caring for her brood. If this had been a wooden fence, I wouldn’t have seen her underside, not recognized to name her “Mama.”

We treasure our residence and our fenced yard in Beacon Hill, an area we used and appreciated all of the extra through the pandemic. Our tiny sanctuary is surrounded by the almost invisible geometric diamonds of a chain-link fence. We will see via it however nonetheless maintain out strangers and maintain a canine in (if we ever get a canine).

I’ve appeared down on our fence since we purchased our home 15 years in the past. The galvanized metal is boring and has ragged edges that catch your garments should you get too shut. If it will get bent, like a paper clip, it’s unimaginable to return to its natal type. Chain-link fences are institutional. They bring to mind building or deserted heaps overgrown with weeds. They’re scaled by youngsters. They sign effectivity, or poverty, or each. Chain-link fences are one of many first issues to go when a neighborhood is gentrifying. 

Through the years, my husband and I’ve debated changing our fence. I’ve felt uncovered, my backyard and my actions on show to anybody who walks down the alley. I’ve lamented the looks, feeling prefer it didn’t signify the standing of residence I’d envisioned for myself. I’ve lobbied for a wooden fence for magnificence and for privateness. My husband prefers the chain-link. And since it might be so costly, to not point out wasteful, to exchange a superbly purposeful fence, his facet has all the time received. He does concede that the morning glory wrapping via the tiny diamonds is irritating, however he likes to be part of the alley, not other than it.

Through the years, my judgment has softened. I received used to it, then forgot to be bothered by it, and currently I’ve begun to see the fence as form of pleasant. 

Rosie and her infants transfer with the relative silence wanted to be a wild animal within the metropolis, however once they scramble over my fence, I hear them. Clink, clang, ting, tinnnn. The sound isn’t fixed like a wind chime. You possibly can hear the light jangling sound when the gate is opened and closed, asserting guests just like the bells on a store door. Squirrels bounding throughout the highest create tinkling chimes, and crows that land and take off trigger it to ring because it swings beneath their weight. 

We borrow views of adjoining gardens. We chat with our mates throughout the alley, or meet a brand new household as they unload bins just a few homes up. And other people can see in, too, so we wave or nod hiya. I seen a lady gazing via the fence at my home, and it turned out she had taken piano classes in my front room some 50 years in the past. With fingers gently pushed via the squares, we met a neighbor’s candy canine, Jellybean.

Life within the metropolis requires a certain quantity of willingness to share house. We all know our neighbors a bit of, say hiya and discuss gardens or native building updates, feed cats, and herald packages once they’re on trip. However as a result of we’re so shut collectively, there’s additionally a type of pretense that goes on. I fake to not discover their comings and goings, they fake to not overhear my conversations. For issues I don’t need to have a look at via the fence, like trash cans, I develop vegetation to cover them from view.

And the vegetation love the chain-link fence. They’ve one thing to climb, which is vexing with morning glory, however useful with my star jasmine that may’t appear to seize something by itself. Clematis climbs it with ease. Shrubs and perennials lengthen via the fence, softening straight strains. 

The place a wooden fence would solid shade, strawberries develop within the solar. With a small backyard like ours, we will’t afford to dam out daylight. 

This isn’t only a fence of utility, or of prisons or colleges or basketball courts. It’s a fence constructed out of sunshine and sound, excellent for a permeable life. 

It has taken me years, however I’m having fun with our chain-link fence now. It lets me commune with the vegetation and birds and animals and climate and neighbors within the alley. To witness spiderwebs and gently perched hummingbirds. To make mates, or at the very least share house.

The South Seattle Emerald is dedicated to holding house for a wide range of viewpoints inside our neighborhood, with the understanding that differing views don’t negate mutual respect amongst neighborhood members.

The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the contributors on this web site don’t essentially mirror the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the Emerald or official insurance policies of the Emerald.

📸 Featured picture by Priyash Vasava/Unsplash.com.

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