More flowers

I was born in Topeka and lived on Polk street and when I was three my father designed a house that was built on Jewell. It was just 4 blocks from the Washburn College where my father had been a football hero back in 1913 and he was sure the team would keep winning and he did not want to pay for parking so we were close so he could walk. There was a little house on the corner which a contractor decided to build one as large as ours so he moved the small one back and it now faced 13th Street. My parents had fenced in the yard on 3 sides and had a sidewalk to the alley. There was a 3 foot space of dirt between the sidewalk and the fence. My 2 sisters and 1 brother could plant something if we wanted to. I think my mother planted a rose. I went for things like marigolds as they are a happy flower. I think one of my sisters did zinnias and then in the dirt place between the driveway to our garage and the house my mother had four-o-clocks which seem to reseed themselves like marigolds do. Our new neighbor had lots of rose bushes and I think we had a peony bush which someone drove over. It was fun being a gardener. I remember we had an apricot tree and I still love apricots, Jam is especially good. Smucker's have the same recipe if you want to know what they tasted like. My mother use to bottle root beer but I do not think she had the correct recipe as it had a tendency to blow up and startle us upstairs so we sounded like a Kansas bootlegger. It was fun growing up in that house and except for all the stairs I envy my sister. The doorways are wide so my wheelchair would not hit them like they do in my house.