Sharon Short, Author
  • Home
  • About
    • Behind the Scenes FAQ
  • Books (as Sharon)
    • My One Square Inch of Alaska
    • Josie Toadfern Stain-Busting Mysteries
    • Sanity Check
    • Patricia Delaney eGumshoe Mysteries
  • Books (as Jess)
  • Stories & Essays
  • For Writers
  • Contact

Charity Blooms With Flower Planting

5/6/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
I have to admit, when the six flats of band flowers arrived two days ago, my heart fell.  That's the first time I've felt dread upon seeing flats of flowers arrive on my porch.

The high school's marching band kids come around mid-winter, with cheery brochures depicting pretty pink and red and yellow blooms. Now, I know I'm not much of a gardener. But every year, I buy flats of support-the-marching-band flowers. Flats and flats and flats.

This mid-winter was no different. In fact, I bought from not one... not two... but THREE marching band kids. (A clarinetist, a color guard member, and trumpeter, for the record.)


Why? Well, by mid-winter, who isn't a sucker for a cheery brochure filled with pictures of pretty flowers?

Plus, I'm a sucker for kids who come up to my door trying to look cool, even indifferent... yet still looking a bit hopeful, even eager... as they pedal Girl Scout cookies and Boy Scout popcorn and coupons-I'll-never-use-for-stuff-I-don't-want-at-merchants-I-never-visit for wrestling/cheerleading/track/football/cross country. And flowers for marching band. After all, our daughters (one now in college, the other a recent college graduate) were those kids, plying our neighbors and friends and relatives who were ever-so-kind and patient. So I figure it's my turn to do the buying, now.

And, yeah, I'm a little sentimental. Our kids are long past the stage of selling stuff for their activities. And as much of a pain as it was to help them coordinate it all, I miss those days. During our oldest daughter's junior year of high school, I was even in charge of the marching band's flower sale. (She played trombone.) Nothing says spring like a high school gym literally filled from bleacher to bleacher, basketball hoop to basketball hoop, with flats of begonias, petunias, impatiens and marigolds.

Nothing says oh-God-why-did-I-agree-to-this like contemplating those flats and knowing I was in charge of making sure we had enough of every single variety to match every single order... those orders, by the way, numbering in the thousands.

But I'm still just a wee bit sentimental about those days.

So, I bought flats of flowers. And more flats. And more or less forgot about them until... they showed up on my porch.

And my heart fell.


Read More
1 Comment

    Categories

    All
    Books I Love
    Creativity
    Cross Training For Writers
    Literary Life
    Movies
    My One Square Inch Of Alaska
    Pie
    Recipe
    Sanity Check
    Screenwriting
    Waxing Philosophical

    Sharon Short...

    ...is  a novelist, columnist, workshop director, instructor, and a pie enthusiast. As such, she blogs about the literary life, life in general, and pie. Definitely, pie.

    As Jess Montgomery, she writes historical mysteries.

    Archives

    January 2018
    August 2017
    June 2016
    May 2016
    August 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    December 2012

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photo used under Creative Commons from GabboT