Old Fashioned Orange Lilies
Orange lilies line the ditch near my growing up farmhouse, a country school nearby, where a passel of Wilson kids studied their McGuffy readers during the 1920s.After the one-room school bell grew silent, the wooden building moved out,its playground plowed into fertile farmground,old fashioned orange lilies still announcethe spot where rural youngsters once carried their dinner pails,recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, once worried through Friday spelldowns,once played One O’ Cat and Red Rover.Did pioneers bring roots of these flowers with them,their glow still marking long-ago country school days?
Love! Orange lilies always arrived in time for our daughter’s birthday – in each of the houses we lived in as she grew up. We still call them her ‘birthday flowers’. Thanks for prompting the joyful memory, Joy! 🥰
Iowa counties are staring to post signs where the schools used to be. They’re noted on old county maps, about every 2 miles. So many of them were sturdy enough to move to town to become someone’s home, smaller ones became sheds. It’s fun to watch when people realize a building they’d taken for granted was once a rural school with history (such as, when my mother’s family were new at Penn #4, Mom’s oldest brother Delbert had a fight with the biggest kid in the school. Delbert won, but they became great friends, all the way through high school!
Sadly, the space where the elementary school (a three-story, multiple-classroom building, not a one-room schoolhouse) I attended sat is not filled with flowers. The school was closed after a new one was built a mile or so away, and it was turned into a county schools warehouse. Many years ago, it burned and then had to be demolished. The hill on which it sat was leveled, and now a shopping center occupies the space where we once learned and played. Sad to see it go like that.
I love your poem, Joy! We have the same orange lilies marking where buildings once stood. In both Vermont and New Hampshire, a number of one-room schoolhouses have been converted into homes.
Around here (Ky) those flowers are often referred to as ditch lilies. I suppose it may describe their hardiness. Sometimes cast aside, not always properly appreciated, still offering a simple kind of humble beauty to the soul craving a passing perk.
I always called them ditch lilies as well since that’s where they always grew, not in someone’s garden. Thanks for your comment, especially about the passing perk!
You painted a picture of the past, Joy.
Joe Kenney’s photo started it! Thank you, GP.
Love! Orange lilies always arrived in time for our daughter’s birthday – in each of the houses we lived in as she grew up. We still call them her ‘birthday flowers’. Thanks for prompting the joyful memory, Joy! 🥰
Thanks to Joe Kenney’s photo for prompting mine! What a delightful memory, Vicki!
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Lovely poem, Joy! Simpler times.
Just one photo brought it all back. Thank you, Eilene.
I love this poem and the image it provokes. Did you know the Prairie Lily is the Provincial Flower of Saskatchewan? I grew up enjoying these beauties.
What a delightful tidbit! Thank you, Darlene.
Ah, the days of the one-room schoolhouse are now hard to find.
Iowa counties are staring to post signs where the schools used to be. They’re noted on old county maps, about every 2 miles. So many of them were sturdy enough to move to town to become someone’s home, smaller ones became sheds. It’s fun to watch when people realize a building they’d taken for granted was once a rural school with history (such as, when my mother’s family were new at Penn #4, Mom’s oldest brother Delbert had a fight with the biggest kid in the school. Delbert won, but they became great friends, all the way through high school!
Your engaging poem has made me nostalgic for an era I didn’t even grow up during!
Bless you, Nancy!
Sadly, the space where the elementary school (a three-story, multiple-classroom building, not a one-room schoolhouse) I attended sat is not filled with flowers. The school was closed after a new one was built a mile or so away, and it was turned into a county schools warehouse. Many years ago, it burned and then had to be demolished. The hill on which it sat was leveled, and now a shopping center occupies the space where we once learned and played. Sad to see it go like that.
And you’re note THAT old! All of my “places” are gone, and I’m not that old either. . .
Fabulous description of times gone by, Joy, and a great photo of the flowers by Mr. Kenney. Growing up in the country must bring on good memories.
Thank you, Tim. Especially when you don’t live there anymore.
I love your poem, Joy! We have the same orange lilies marking where buildings once stood. In both Vermont and New Hampshire, a number of one-room schoolhouses have been converted into homes.
Thank you, Liz. To think they were sturdy enough to be hauled off and still in use.
You’re welcome, Joy. It’s always heartening to see historic buildings still put to good use instead of being torn down.
Lovely poem, Joy! 💞
Bless you, Lauren!
Around here (Ky) those flowers are often referred to as ditch lilies. I suppose it may describe their hardiness. Sometimes cast aside, not always properly appreciated, still offering a simple kind of humble beauty to the soul craving a passing perk.
I always called them ditch lilies as well since that’s where they always grew, not in someone’s garden. Thanks for your comment, especially about the passing perk!