One of my sweetest childhood memories were the flower bushes that graced my Grandma Hall's humble unpainted house out by Bayou Bartholomew near Bastrop, Louisiana. They rented the house and land, and raised cotton and soybeans. My cousins who lived there also might want to put their 2 cents worth in at this point and further, but I know those were two of the crops.
The picture of that house will forever be etched in my mind. It had a front porch and a screen door which on a Sunday afternoon was forever slamming echoed by the certain "don't slam the door". To the right of the open porch, if memory serves me well, was the hydrangea bush and a lantana, the old fashioned pink and orange variety. (cousins, is this correct?)
To my child's eye, it was just a flower in the yard, but as years have passed the beauty and magnificence of those blossoms have increased for me. I love them!! They are so hefty and colorful with lush foliage, their color determined by the kind of soil, acidic or alkaline. Which makes which? I think the blue is from alkaline, but I did not Google it. My pitiful little one is a pinkie.
Recently a college friend purchased a watercolor from me of Hollyhocks in front of an unpainted house (thank you, Facebook!) She loved it and wanted another to hang with it. I suggested Hydrangeas, and she liked the idea.
Time sure does fly. It seems like yesterday, in a way, and a millions years ago in another way, that door was slamming and us kids were having the time of our lives out at Grandpa's on a Sunday afternoon. It's been said a million times, kids today do not know what they are missing, and I'll say it again, they do not. Some of the best memories of my childhood!
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