"OTHER"
Iris Garden"
It was just busy work,
something to do, helping track down the members of the Herrin Township High
School Class of 1963. It was 2013 and
time for our fiftieth golden reunion. I
was really looking forward to seeing our surviving class members. I have very fond memories of classmates,
particularly biology class, sitting in the gym at noon and riding the bus with
other kids from rural Herrin, Illinois.
But I was really
disappointed when Eddie couldn’t come.
He had some medical issues and wasn’t up to the trip. So we kept the emails going, just kind of
catching up. I wrote about my Iris
Garden (maybe I didn’t make it clear that it was a virtual thing, a blog). So he went out in his yard in the fall and
thinned his irises, packed some bulbs in two large cloth bags with peat moss
and tied them up in plastic. I had plans
to drive north in the fall and maybe catch a lunch date with him. But the weather got really bad and winter
bore down upon us in an unusually ferocious blow. I didn’t get to go anywhere.
Come Spring, I got another
email and Eddie says he came to Southern Illinois to visit family and left some
iris bulbs for me at his brother’s (Adam) farm.
Truthfully, I’m delighted. But, I
live in an apartment complex where the woods used to be in Bandyville. And permission for planting an iris garden
wasn’t included in the lease. So what am
I to do? I want those bulbs. Eddie describes a tall yellow iris that will
grow up to five blossoms on one stem. He
sent me a picture of his iris garden. Wow! Did I say I love irises?
Photo of Eddie’s Irises in South St. Louis.
What’s a girl to do? And it was going to be my birthday in about a
week. Frankly, I could not imagine a
better birthday present. So, Yes, I’m
going after those iris bulbs. They’re
mine. Eddie grew them. They are Irises! And I’m going to have them.
So I drove up to the
farm.
Eddie’s sister-in-law,
Lois, was one of the older girls when I started Bandyville Grade School at age
six. She remembered me and we visited
for about two hours. I used to have a silly school girl crush on her younger
brother, Jimmy. I got to meet Adam and Lois's
daughter, Deanna, while I was there. I
loved being out on the farm, vast fields freshly plowed and planted and even
corn about 3 inches high.
Beautiful! God’s country! So Adam loaded the bulbs in my van and I
drove them back to Bandyville.
That's the Iris Lover right in front of the sign.
Three seats back is that cute Jimmy.
Lots of other friends there.
Mrs. Alma Sanders our teacher.
BANDYVILLE SCHOOL
What to do with them? My friend Clara’s husband, Lawrence and
another gardening expert, Phil, both said I could grow them in pots on my
patio. Doubtful, I thought, as I’d never
heard of growing irises in a pot. But, hey,
that sounded good to me.
So, some of the bulbs went to Fudgetown to Lawrence and Clara’s. He planted them at the end of their driveway (where I can always see them when I visit) and started a new garden out back. Phil came over and helped me with bags of dirt etc. We had a great time planting my patio stuff. He planted the iris bulbs randomly in several of the pots.
Alias, Tameroa, Native American descendant, Cherokee
Tribe.
(We just call him Phil.)
Phil took some home to
Stucker Lane in Energy. He plans to
plant some in the yard of Mrs. Marguerite Rodney, recently turned 100 years old
and living independently in her home place on Stotlar Rd. Incidentally, Marguerite taught at Bandyville
and was actually Eddie’s teacher at Sunnyside Grade School.
Mrs. Rodney and Waldene
Hock Rice (our cook)
(Photo per the Bandyville Reunion Yearbook)
What a small world! So now I have two Iris Gardens. And I just love it!
So the ‘Other Iris Garden’
was planted on May 17, 2014.
Just five days after my birthday.
Just five days after my birthday.
Cool, huh?
May 28, 2014 The First Sprouts.
and right here at home in Bandyville,
near the Bandy home
place where I actually
had my first very own iris garden.
Words are tools we use to
paint a picture of our thoughts or feelings.
But sometimes words are like seeds.
Sometimes words can grow into things that are bigger
and better than the
printed page or a fancy speech.
And I
think that’s what happened with Doris Ann’s Iris Garden,
a simple blog, with
some pretty words, like “iris” and “garden”
and “special friends” who come to
see what’s “growing today.”
And other "special friends" who are actually ready
to provide
and
help with the planting.
Hmmm.
Okay!
Eventually, I’ll have
photographs of Eddie’s yellow irises blooming,
that are really growing
in Doris Ann’s Iris
Garden
on the blog.
on the blog.
Copyright – 2014 – Doris Grant Frey
