Red Dirt Chronicles

Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.

Menu
  • Home
  • Posting Schedule
  • Comment Policy
  • Complete EPOTM List
    • Cities visited A – E
      • Adair, OK
      • Beggs, OK
      • Bethel Acres
      • Boley, OK
      • Cache, OK
      • Carney, OK
      • Cashion, OK
      • Cedar Valley, OK
      • Cimarron City, OK
      • Crescent, OK
      • Criner, OK
      • Cromwell, OK
      • Dibble, OK
      • Disney, OK
    • Cities visited F – J
      • Fay, OK
      • Grove, OK
      • Guthrie, OK
      • Holdenville, OK
      • IXL, OK
    • Cities visited K – O
      • Lexington, OK
      • Lima, OK
      • Little, OK
      • Little Axe, OK
      • Meeker, OK
      • Miami, OK
      • Mounds, OK
      • Navina, OK
      • New Lima OK
      • Owasso, OK
    • Cities visited P – T
      • Payne, OK
      • Peoria, OK
      • Picher, OK (A)
      • Pink, OK
      • Pryor Creek, OK
      • Putnam, OK
      • Quapaw, OK
      • Schoolton, OK
      • Spavinaw, OK
      • Sperry, OK
      • Strang, OK
      • Stillwater, OK
      • Tecumseh, OK
      • Tulsa, OK
    • Cities visited U – Z
      • Vici, OK
      • Wewoka, OK
      • Wyandotte, OK
      • Yukon, OK
  • RDC Store
  • About
  • Contact
Menu

Flowers in the Attic

Posted on April 8, 2013April 8, 2013 by Red Dirt Kelly

I recall being obsessed with the V.C. Andrews “Flowers in the Attic” book series as a student in junior high and high school.

I thought about that book series as I stared at a 6 cent FDR stamp postmarked 1968.  I’ve been cleaning my own attic on and off for the past month.  As I was going through a box of childhood keepsakes, I came across a postcard sent to me by my Aunt Virginia.

Aunt Virginia loves flowers, her back yard is full of them.  When I visit her, I usually end up with a few cuttings or bulbs.  From her flower beds to mine, she shares her blooms, and they keep giving color to my yard year after year.

The back of the postcard was yellowed, and her message had been written in pencil.  The faded handwriting was a stark contrast to the Oklahoma travel photos on the front.  A 1960s black and white reel-to-reel news voice popped into my head as I read the description of the photos:

The front of this card shows only a few of the natural and man-made attractions which make Oklahoma a vacation adventureland. (Compliments of Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.  Not to be sold.)

As I read through her message, I realized she had written a poem and included me, her daughter (my cousin Julie) and my brother in the lines:

Dear Kelly,

I raised my head and looked at the World

And there was Kelly, a nice little girl

We played and ate ice cream and had lots of fun

Although cowgirl Julie was wearing a gun,

You got out the dolls and the dishes for a tea,

While Julie and little Quentin were running free,

Be a sweet little girl and always act nice

And the next time I see you I’ll kiss you twice.

Aunt Virginia

I re-read the poem a couple of times and thought, “I have my own flowers in the attic.  They’re from Aunt Virginia, given to me when I was five.  And now that I’ve found them, they’ll keep blooming – just like the perennials from her in my flower beds – adding color to my soul, year after year.”

20130407_215330

Comments

comments

Category: Oklahoma culture

1 thought on “Flowers in the Attic”

  1. Southwest Sara says:
    April 8, 2013 at 11:43 pm

    Don’t you just love finding treasures like these? Thanks for sharing your aunt’s “flowers” with the rest of us.

Comments are closed.

email usemail us

Categories

See my published books

Archives

RDC Recommends...

  • Abandoned OK
  • Exploring Oklahoma History
  • NonDoc
  • Oklahoma Women Bloggers
  • Uncovering Oklahoma

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
© 2023 Red Dirt Chronicles | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme