The Darling Dahlias and the Silver Dollar Bush

Dear Reader,

We have to say that we were very surprised when Mrs. Albert approached us about writing another book about our Darling garden club. The last few weeks have been so tough here in our little town (like everywhere else around the country, probably) that it hardly seems right to make a story out of people’s hardships.

But even though things looked pretty grim for a while, we got through the rough waters and now our town is managing to sail along on a more even keel, with a little more money in our pockets—or what passes for money, anyway. And as Mrs. Albert points out, we’re all in the very same boat these days and when we feel like it’s sinking right out from under us, it helps to know how others have managed to stay afloat.

So in the interests of letting other towns know how Darling managed to survive the threatened closing of its one and only bank, we’ve told Mrs. Albert that we would help her write her book. And when she asked us to recommend a title (“a garden plant that’s connected with the story” was what she said), some of us came up right away with The Silver Dollar Bush. We thought of that because the dried seed pods look so much like silver dollars and this story has to do with money and the lack of it and how we coped.

The silver dollar bush is the plant that Miss Rogers (our Darling librarian) insists on calling by its Latin name, Lunaria. But as Mildred Kilgore reminded us, Lunaria also goes by the name of “moonwort,” because the silvery seeds are round, like the full moon. And since Mickey LeDoux’s moonshine operation is a part of the story, she thought Mrs. Albert’s book should be called The Moonshine Bush.

Then Alice Ann Walker offered The Honesty Plant, since that’s one of Lunaria’s names, too. Sadly, however, there seems to be quite a bit of dishonesty in this story, so that title was ruled out after some heated discussion.

The final vote was ten to three in favor of recommending The Silver Dollar Bush. Mrs. George E. Pickett Johnson was absent, Miss Rogers abstained, and Mildred held out for The Moonshine Bush.

But we do want to tell you that while flowers are dear to the hearts of every single member of our garden club, we make room in our hearts—and our gardens—for plenty of vegetables, since we also like to eat. Aunt Hetty Little says to remind you of the old saying, “When you have only two pennies left in the world, you should buy a potato with one and a rose with the other.” She adds that if you can grow a potato, that means you can spend two pennies on roses, doesn’t it? And if you can grow roses, you can spend those last two pennies on shoes for the kids. Which leads her to say, “See there? A garden can even grow shoes.” And of course Aunt Hetty is right, as usual.

So we’re putting a little extra time into our gardens this spring—when we’re not helping Mrs. Albert with the research for her book, that is. We know she intends to include some of the bad things that happened in our town recently. But we trust her to show that most of us have hearts that are good as gold (even if gold is illegal) and only want the best for all our Darling friends and neighbors.

Sincerely yours,

The Darling Dahlias





The Darling Dahlias Club Roster, Spring 1933


CLUB OFFICERS

Elizabeth Lacy, president. Secretary to Mr. Benton Moseley, attorney-at-law, and garden columnist for the Darling Dispatch.

Ophelia Snow, vice president and secretary. Linotype operator and sometime reporter at the Darling Dispatch. Wife of Darling’s mayor, Jed Snow.

Verna Tidwell, treasurer. Cypress County probate clerk and acting treasurer. A widow, Verna lives with her beloved Scottie, Clyde.

Myra May Mosswell, communications secretary. Co-owner of the Darling Telephone Exchange and the Darling Diner. Lives with Violet Sims and Violet’s little girl, Cupcake, in the flat over the diner.

CLUB MEMBERS