What could me more joyful than walking through a field of flowers? Peonies, to be precise. 1,200 varieties! Row upon row of big pom poms, with colors ranging from bright white to blood red, and every shade of pink and coral in between. I happened to be walking through this peony farm in Milford, Iowa as part of a bus tour sponsored by the “Rock County Master Gardeners”. I am not a fan of gardening (my mom would be very sorry to hear me say that right now, as she was an avid and enthusiastic gardener throughout our brief Wisconsin summers). That said, I am a fan of other people’s gardens, specifically flowers.
This tour was my first “date” since moving to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. My new friend, Sarah, whom I had recently met, asked me if I would like to join her on this bus tour. Did I ever! And so it was that this bus filled with old ladies (and one old man), disembarked at this marvelous peony garden.
I love flowers, but even more, I love people’s stories. Shelly, the owner of the peony farm, told us she had always loved peonies. She had two plants in her garden at home, and, “I thought ‘I can’t wait to bring the stems in.’ And then my brain went to, somewhere out there, there has to be a peony farm, and how cool would that be to see.” So, in 2020 she went out, got some land, and planted 5,200 peony stems! So began Silo Ridge Peony Farm. How’s that for following your joy?
So, here is where the joy of stories really takes flight for me. My dad and mom were raised in Iowa, and I had heard a few stories in my childhood about summers spent in Lake Okoboji. As the bus was passing through Okoboji, I texted my dad (age 96!), and asked him for some stories. He obliged. He told me he had many wonderful memories of dancing at the Roof Garden (which was actually on the roof) in West Lake Okoboji. One time he was dancing (dancing! What an image!) at the Roof Garden and “I saw the band didn’t have a piano player so I said could I sit in and I did. I was probably 16. While I was doing that your mother, who of course I didn’t know, was roller skating with her Sioux City friends.”
Now, isn’t that enough to make you smile, or laugh, or even weep?
This is my parents in a nutshell. My dad loves to dance. He loves music, and is able to sit down and play the piano, if you would just ask him. And if you don’t ask him, he has the confidence to ask a professional band, at age 16, if he could sit down and play with them! Then there is my mother. Seeing her roller-skating at the Roof Garden is just a perfect picture of her. She loved her friends, she loved to have fun, and she surely would have loved to roller-skate with wild abandon on the roof of a building in Okoboji, Iowa! No wonder I am always seeking out joy. I was raised with it!
So, this week’s joy: a bus tour with a bunch of gray-haired ladies (and one gray-haired man), a new friend, a field of peonies, and my dad playing piano with the band so that my mom could roller-skate along to the music on the roof in West Lake Okoboji, Iowa.
