Photoessay #77 – Evening Primrose

This older gentleman lives across the street from my mother in the ‘cottages’ across from Wesley Willows. I chatted with him on my way home from ‘across the street’. Eager to show me his Evening Primroses, he took me on a tour in the front and back to see delicate round flowers of clearest yellow. They open every evening about 8pm and are closed by the end of the morning. By this evening, those flowers will be limp on the vine. He spoke of them with wonder and pride.

“See these ones” he pointed to some long elongated buds “they will open tonight. Come by and you will be able to see them” He also had some great winter squash going and his tomato bushes were so thick, the large red fruits barely had enough room to exist. He was busy catching and squashing Japanese beetles. “They eat the flowers” he frets.

I gave away my father’s nuclear energy text books to Rockford College library. I regret that I didn’t take a picture of them before the librarian took them away. Not very many, they were from his training in the late 40s and early 50s. I’m also pleased that I was able to find a home for his 1970s ‘nuclear power as energy source’ materials. At that time, my father felt that nuclear power was a good choice for power plants and he started his own mini-information service. He kept a mailing list, collected information and studies and sent out this information to his list of influential friends and policy-makers. He had several file drawers filled with carefully cataloged primary sources. Pamphlets and reports from the period.

Such a shame to just pitch it. All that work. Independent of personal feelings regarding nuclear power. Luckily the Rockford College person also showed interest in those materials so off they went.