You Never Promised me a Rose Garden

If you’ve ever visited my parents’ house(s) on Elm Avenue or now, on Jeanette Drive, you’ve no doubt seen the ever-expanding and overflowing gardens. I suspect my mother, Pat (Taylor) Smith, got her “green thumb” from her dad, Walter, because who can forget that long drive up the road, anticipation, and finally, knowing you arrived once the beautiful centerpiece of the Taylor homestead – the circular flowerbed with Moss Roses – came into view?

Walter and Jean Taylor's Homestead with Flowerbed (Picture shared by Lori Gunder Burke)

You can imagine my surprise when my first attempts at gardening revealed I did not have this green thumb gene (mom tried encouraging me with a supposed, “no fail” Ivy once and that was short-lived). But, with prodding from John (husband), I leaped in again. Now, John loves anything hot (hot rods, weather, food, etc.). In fact, my sister, Coreen, and family gave John the biggest box of black pepper they could find for a birthday present this same year (although the pepper is long gone, the laughs continue). Anyway, we started gathering information about peppers, like Sweet Bells, Jalapenos, and Chili, as well as other plants we were interested in and determined what would do well in our climate, soil, and in sun or shade.

etc

Like life and the lyrics to the song, Rose Garden, “…you don’t find roses growin’ on stalks of clover, so you’d better think it over.”

Watering, picking massive amounts of different kinds of tomatoes, peppers, squash, and weeds, and cooking and freezing all sorts of concoctions soon filled mornings and after work nights. It brought back childhood memories of long forgotten days, hours, and rows of beans with all, including Grandma Taylor, picking, sorting, and snapping. Unfortunately, what I forgot during “think it over” was to look or survey the land so to say because gardening took off just after I leaped back into school, working towards a master’s degree.

Like life and the lyrics to the song, Rose Garden, “You better look before you leap.” 

This crazy schedule produced more than just fruits and vegetables: challenges (as John and Caleb, my son, will attest to, pulling all-nighters at this age is definitely challenging to live with). But, after a time, cold breezy days and falling leaves, turning to bits of white flakes, arrived. What was once a childhood (and an adult) chore turned to joy, “The passion or emotion excited by the acquisition,” and our sweet fruits of labor, a rose garden, ushered in. 

Like life and the lyrics to the song, Rose Garden, “…along with the sunshine, there's gotta be a little rain sometimes.” But, as singer Lynn Anderson says, “…if you take hold of life and go ahead, you can make something out of nothing.”

So, go ahead, "...smile a while," reminisce, enjoy the video by Tina McBride and Lynn Anderson singing "Rose Garden," and take a moment to share with us your memory about the Taylor flowerbed (or yours), something about produce gardens (if my memory serves me correctly, the Taylor’s produce gardens lined that long driveway), or perhaps, a story about childhood chores turning to joy.

References

Country Music Classics (n.d.). The story behind the song: Page three. Retrieved from http://www.countrymusicclassics.com/CMCStorySongDec.htm
Anderson, L. (1970). Rose garden. Retrieved from http://www.lynnandersonshow.com/videos/?c=10
Meyer, J. (2004). Seven things that steal your joy: Overcoming the obstacles to your happiness. New York, NY: Time Warner Book Group.