OFFICERS, GENTLEMEN AND THE WOMEN WHO LOVE DAHLIAS

I had the honor of meeting the outgoing ADS president, Jerry Landerholm, last night at the Awards Banquet. Up until that time, I had known him only as a name in the ADS Bulletin. I arrived early enough in the banquet room to circulate among people that I had not yet had the opportunity to befriend, and when I saw Jerry and his wife, I approached them. He seemed genuinely pleased to meet me, and we immediately connected over our common experience of both having had fathers who worked for the railroad. I believe his dad worked for the Northern Pacific, while my father and grandfather were both employed by the Great Northern. His wife recalled seeing Rocky, the Great Northern goat, regularly roll past on the logos that covered the freight and passenger cars of the Empire Builder. The Landerholms live in Lombard, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago in which I actually stayed in November of 2011 on a visit with my cousin Beth DeRooy and her significant other, Tom Rail. We were visiting Tom's boyhood home, just outside of Chicago, and then traveling to see my Aunt Trudy, my dad's sister, in Grand Rapids. I love Chicago, so Jerry and I immediately had one more thing in common. We chatted a lot about our dads' work on the railroads, and then he shared with me that he knew OF my dad, and that sometime in the 1990s, dahlia grower Bud Moore and my dad commented that he and Dad were the two oldest active judges in the ADS. Bud passed away recently, and Dad died in 2006 but these men were just about the same age, having been born in 1921 or 22. They stayed involved in their local and national clubs until the end of their lives. I could see the love that Jerry obviously had for Bud, and the great deal of respect he still maintained toward men like Dad and Bud. I got the feeling that part of his service in the role of ADS president constituted his way of paying tribute to these men who had gone on before us. There is such a legacy of the virtual bloodlines that are developed as a result of this common obsession with dahlia growing and showing. Although I had never met before met Jerry, or several others of the people I met last night, I felt immediately related to them through our mutual commitment to carrying on the traditions established over the years as evidenced by our work with dahlias and dahlia people. My table mates included Dick and Danielle Parshall, David and Betty Burton, Les and Viv Connell and Bernie Wilson, all of whom represent some of the brightest lights in my dahlia world. I am so enthusiastic to be able to speak the same language as these amazing people, a language that I heard from childhood, at my father's knee and Forest Park's Floral Hall. Not to be forgotten, of course, are the wonderful women who grow, hybridize and dig alongside, or even independent of, their male counterparts. Each one of these people help to contribute the common good by their energy, creativity and dedication to the hobby of growing and showing dahlias. One thing I have noticed about a lot of people, as they grow older, is that their world become smaller and smaller as they age, and they withdraw from life slowly but surely. Being part of this group of people, by contrast, truly makes me feel like I have arrived at a place that enlarges my world, a great adventure for someone my age. Off to meetings now.....more immersion in a culture that I am only beginning to learn about. As my friend, Kaile Brant said yesterday....."Keep swimming....keep on swimming!"

PHOTO OF THE BRIDGE TO HAYDEN ISLAND, OVER THE COLUMBIA RIVER FROM WASHINGTON TO OREGON. TAKEN FROM THE BALLROOM, THE VENUE FOR THE SHOW, YOU CAN SEE THE DAHLIAS REFLECTED ON THE GLASS OF THE WINDOW THROUGH WHICH I SHOT THIS PHOTO.