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Books About Life on a Farm Written Especially for People Who Like to Read! "Highly recommended reading." The Midwest Book Review Reviews & Readers' Comments |
LeAnn R. Ralph Rural Route 2 Author E6689 970th Ave. Colfax, WI 54730 (715) 308-6336 |
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by LeAnn R. Ralph It's silly really, the importance I attach to them. They're just ordinary day lilies - lots of narrow green leaves which send up long stems and produce unremarkable orange flowers... Still, when I moved into the house my mother and father built for their retirement, I was glad to see the day lilies. They looked healthy. Maybe a little too healthy - almost on the verge of choking themselves out in their bed by the garage. These daylilies started their lives back in the dry years of the Great Depression, sometime during the 1930's. My grandmother Inga, a Norwegian immigrant, had planted them next to our farmhouse. I suppose she wanted a few flowers to brighten the yard. But it was dry - drought conditions people of my generation have never known. So dry, my mother told me, clouds of dust dimmed the sun and deposited a fine grit on everything in the house, even with the windows closed. Amid the constant threat of the well running dry, farm animals who needed water to drink and garden plants that needed moisture, too, my grandmother thought it might be frivolous to spare water for her flowers. So, whenever Inga finished washing the dishes, she hauled her dishwater to the day lilies. They survived. The day lilies flourished by the farmhouse. Then, when I was born in the late 1950's, my parents decided they needed more room, and they planned to build an addition - right where the day lilies grew. My mother was a practical person. They were perfectly good day lilies - she thought it was a shame to waste them. So, some of the day lilies were moved to the Norton Church cemetery and planted by the grave of my infant brother, Charles, born 17 years before me. At the cemetery, survival became more of a challenge for the day lilies. The soil around the church is sandy and somewhat deficient in nutrients. If it doesn't rain two or three times a week during the summer, the cemetery grass turns brown. (My mother told me my great grandfather first homesteaded a farm near the church. A short while later, though, he abandoned his claim and moved a half mile north to a place with better soil.) Still, the day lilies hung on at the cemetery, providing greenery and bright orange flowers, even when the grass turned brown and other flowers withered away and died. I remember one time when I was a child, we visited the cemetery with some relatives from out of town who wanted to stop and pay their respects. Being inquisitive, I started poking around the lush leaves of the day lilies. I discovered a thrush sitting on her nest. She never moved... Then, in the mid-1970's, the day lilies were declared a nuisance at the cemetery. They made it difficult to mow the grass, we were told. Because I was an ambitious teenager (and because my mother told me to), I dug some of those day lilies and transplanted them at the house where I live now. It is kind of silly, really, the importance I've attached to my day lilies. All around the countryside at various houses, you see patches of the same kinds of day lilies with their ordinary orange flowers. I doubt, though, my grandmother planted any of the other day lilies. And I'm quite certain she didn't succor those other day lilies with her dishwater during the dry years of the Depression. One spring day, my sister-in-law mentioned there was a spot by the farmhouse where she couldn't get any flowers to grow. All around the farmhouse, she has planted peonies, roses and lilies of the valley - but that one barren spot on the east side of the house remained stubbornly empty. Together we dug some of my day lilies, and then my sister-in-law transplanted them by the farmhouse. The day lilies are now growing, and we hope they will fill the empty area so they can come full circle - continuing their journey where it began more than sixty years ago. LeAnn R. Ralph is the author of the farm books "Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm)" (trade paperback; 2003), "Give Me a Home Where the Dairy Cows Roam" (trade paperback; 2004), and "Preserve Your Family History (A Step-by-Step Guide for Interviewing Family Members and Writing Oral Histories" (e-book; 2004) |
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