Mine was my childhood home until maybe 6th grade. It was a big house (well, I'm sure it seemed bigger than it actually was at that age!), the exterior was grey with white trim, black shutters and a red door, built atop a large hill with a retaining wall on one side, so high that the neighboring garage (2 story commercial building) had a roofline level with our yard. The stairs from the sidewalk was a chore, even in today's day and age, I couldn't imagine having to deal with that daily. There were huge oak trees in the back yard, it was a very private space, and we had a pool, my siblings would jump off the tree branches into the pool, I was too small at the time. I loved playing in the leaves in the fall, our back yard would be completely covered once all the leaves dropped. We had a large bathroom, the area with the sink was sunken, and on the elevation was the commode and bathtub, the walls and decor were black and white themed with ornate wallpaper. The kitchen was big, I'd love to have a kitchen that size, and there was a winding staircase going to the second floor, and on the landing was a window...looking out the window, given that we were on a hill, was a long way down. So, I remember as a child I always had this irrational fear that I would fall down the stairs and out the window from that landing. LOL. I loved that house, so many fond memories. Today, that house is no longer there, probably a liability due to it's location high up on a hill (all neighboring houses were at a lower grade) coupled with the maintenance that came with the retaining wall, but I just adore houses with similar color themes.

Our school had a junior-senior prom. It was a small school so I guess they needed two classes to fill the Elks Club ballroom. Don't remember my gown or date my junior year. I'd have to get out the yearbook--wherever it is. :0 My senior year I was dating a guy from the next town. I was very small and we had a terrible time finding a gown to fit. I don't know why my mother didn't make it. She always made our clothes. About a month before prom, mother and daddy went to Columbus, Ohio to visit my aunt and uncle and mother found the prettiest dress. It was a size 3 and she had to alter it. It was short, dusty rose organdy with spaghetti straps (nothing to hold up a topless gown). Across the bodice was a row if deep rose and dusty rose organdy flowers that could be removed (I kept them). I loved that dress! My date brought me a corsage of pink baby roses with babies breath that I pressed and kept for years. After the prom ended at midnight (a treat for all of us to be up that late back then), the Seniors had an all-night party. It was also at the Elks Club. We all changed into bermuda shorts, which were the new hot thing, and danced, played games and ate until about 5 when they served us breakfast. It was a lot of fun and emotional because we were graduating and sure we'd never see each other again. You know how emotional HS girls can be. A lot of kids in my class ended up back in R-ville. Nice little town to raise a family. It'll be 50 years next month since that prom night. Sure wish I was going to the reunion in June!

You know, we are all the products of everything that has gone on before us. We are all accidents of the momentary interminglings of all of our ancestors over thousands of years. We cannot change the past. Things are what they are. Or, were. Mysteries, even unpunished murders from a century ago, are over and done for. And, believe it or not, I really am interested in the past! I love history, family history and lore. But, we need to remember that we are looking at the past through our 21st Century eyes, with our 21st century values and capabilities. Things have changed. As I said earlier, I am sure we ALL have odd, questionable things in our heritage. In about 1902 it was assumed that my great-aunt spent 17 years in prison. She returned to her family and never said a word about it. No one will ever know why she was gone, but there was plenty of speculation in the family, from being a madam to possibly murdering one of her clients. Does it matter? Not to me. It is a great story, though. My husband's grandfather had two families, one on each end of the railroad line he worked on. He didn't die of TB, either, like the family lore has it. But they don't know how he really died, and, to their knowledge, no one from either family has ever met. My great-grandmother did not know that her mother died in another state until several years later, either. She hadn't run away or anything. She was simply out-of-touch for a few years. It is just the way it was back then. And, they didn't always know cause of death. People simply died and were buried. A lot of personal fortunes - personal, financial, historical, political - have gone astray through history. Even things thought to be well-documented, like historic battles, JFK's assassination - for goodness' sake, even the moon landing is disputed! It is all wonderfully interesting, and part of our lives. Five thousand dollars is a lot to spend on curiosity, though, to my way of thinking. But, if you have the money, spend it on whatever you like. Fundraising? Well, um.....

Jay I would dying to know what Chilean trees are surviving for them in TN and AL. I have tried pretty much all the various Eucryphias from PNW nurseries over the years. They either die in the summer, or if they for some reason make it through a summer, they die in winter. But as I've seen with ungrafted 'Nancy Evans', the reason they aren't making thru winter is PRIMARILY simply aren't growing enough in the summer. Cause I'm talking even pretty mild winters. Alas, with a weirdo southern hemisphere plant like this, there's no heat resistant rootstock to graft it onto! Grafted 'Nancy Evans' SEEMS much hardier than ungrafted simply because it is growing a strong root system during the summer! However as I learnt with Chusqueas it pays to keep trying. C. culeou and and I think I tried a C. andina at some point, decline pretty rapidly in summer here. I suppose because of its broader native range, C. gigantea had no problems with hot humid summers and continued to grow through them. It was also at least as winter hardy as my poor old Thamnocalamus tessellatus, that has gotten pretty big during strings of mild winters only to be cut down during cold years. Alas, the damn things flowered in 2020! Just as it was getting established! I didn't bother collecting seed because I worried about getting quality plants with such a narrow gene pool. Hopefully Ian at Desert Northwest offers it soon from fresh seed. (all bamboos of a species flower in the same year in case anyone doesn't know this) Floral - 95/96 had been a very cold winter in Scotland although the owner of a large UK nursery told me it wasn't in the south, so you might not remember it as such. Supposedly got down to the mid single digits F...around -15C. Anyhow, the Eucryphia X nymansensis 'Nymansay' in that picture was a little big singed on its northern flank but it didn't stop it from blooming profusely. It was probably 1/2 as big then. But it looked much better than the Cordylines. All of them in town were burnt down to the lowest 3' of trunk if not the ground. Same at the presumably slightly milder St. Andrews. OTOH I saw big undamaged cordies at Culzean Castle on the milder west coast of Scotland. The nice thing about this view is because this is a major thoroughfare of Edinburgh you can see the street views all the way back to 2008, and witness the slow but steady expansion of the tree. My bedroom was the room in the leftmost of the 4 buildings, above the blue door. Check out August 2019: THANKS FOR PLAYING!