Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

Today is the first day of spring. Soon, the sun will be shining, birds will be chirping,

and neighbors will be outside tending to their lawns. Sounds like a peaceful scene, right? Think again. Lons are a regular source of beauty and

enjoyment to their owners, but they sometimes become a point of contention between neighbors.

For example, back in late 2017, just after Halloween, there was a rather strange news story out of Kentucky.

Senator Rand Paul was mowing his lawn when he was attacked by his neighbor.

Paul wound up with six broken ribs.

The New York Times reported that, quote, competing explanations of the origins of the drama

cited stray yard clippings, newly planted saplings, and unraked leaves. In other words,

a senator may have been beaten up because of a lawn. Whether that's true or not is probably

a matter known only to both the alleged attacker

and to the senator. But for history's sake, it is worth noting that this episode was by no means

the worst thing to have be fallen to neighbors in the long history of our obsession with

trimmed grass.

In 12th century England, lawns were a symbol of wealth.

King Henry II's lawns were the talk of the town.

The next King Henry, like 80 years later, had the garden around his palace leveled.

Instead of a garden, he wanted a lawn, covered in turf and mowed thereafter.

That's according to a paper written by two lawn researchers.

By the beginning of the 1300s, the trendiness of lawns had led to the popularity of lawn

games among the wealthy people of Southampton, England.

They played on the manicured expanse of Old Bowling Green, which coincidentally

...