re: childhood memories
- Subject: re: childhood memories
- From: Catherine Ratner c*@earthlink.net
- Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 11:25:31 -0700
What a great idea, Jan!
When I was very young, my parents moved to an old Berkeley garden with a
small stand of bamboo. My mother cut some bamboo poles, made a little
teepee, and she and I planted scarlet runner bean seeds. The teepee, just
big enough for me, was soon covered, and I used to spend long periods
sitting inside and peeping out, queen of all I surveyed.
The neighbors had a very large, wild garden with a few pear trees. I used
to crawl through the fence, eat some pears, and then lie on the ground in
the dappled light watching mourning cloak butterflies sip the juice from the
fermenting, over-ripe pears on the ground.
The separate, old wooden garage had a flat roof with a huge, ancient Cecile
Brunner rose covering part of the top. The flat roof was another hideout of
mine and sometimes my friends and I would have a "war of the roses" hurling
the abundant flowers and buds of the rose at each other.
The first flowers I remember, I think because of the fragrance, were "naked
ladies", calla lilies, and the tea rose, "Lady Hillingdon". There is an old
snapshot of me smelling the calla lily which is only slightly shorter than
I.
Cathy
