09.26.06
Lucas Suprise Flowers
Fall means football in Alabama. Fall means Auburn Football to the Harris family. The years Lucas was at Auburn were special to Jerry and I because we could come to the football game and see Lucas at the same time. Lucas lived in the “castle” the first year at Auburn. It was a large house and four boys lived there together. Lucas, Travis Harris, Jake McMillian, and Scott Bowen. Jerry and I would park there and the boys would all be gone already because they were pledges and had to go to whatever frat house they had to take care of that day. It was always the highlight of the game for me to see Lucas climbing up the staris to visit with us dressed in his coat and tie and a date for the game. That fall passed quickly… and the next year or two later Lucas lived in the Dubose apartments close to Alan and then the “shack”. Some where in there he and Rachel met and started dating. Rachel then moved into the second “shack”. Lucas built “his deck” in front of Rachel’s little house and it was the place to hang out for Auburn Football for the Harris family. One day Jerry and I drove up and as we were unloading all the coolers, chairs, and food we brought to the game I spotted a bunch of red blooms behind the third empty shack. I had always wanted some of these little red flowers. They spring up in the fall all over the country roads of Alabama but no one could ever tell me the name of them or where to buy the bulbs…. well anyway I had a fit and just had to dig some of them up….. Lucas and Rachel found a shovel and they both helped dig up every last one of those little red flowers.
I brought them home an planted them in our rose garden…. they grew in amazing numbers and I started thinking of where to transplant them too and how to make them grow. I dug them up (the bulbs) and stored them in the garage. We had planted a hill with azaleas and I wanted a pathway made at the bottom of the hill…. so I went and bought a bunch of landscape timbers and got Lucas to put them out to create a pathway for me that kinda connects to the next door neighbors path….. I never could get anyone to replant the bulbs for me. Last Janurary …. wondering around the garage… I found the bulbs and made a day out of planting them along Lucas’ little pathway and then I took some to Rachel’s house in Montgomery…. I then decided that since I didn’t know their names that I would call them “Lucas Suprise” so I would always think about him when they popped up suddenly in the fall…. and here they are…thanks Lucas… i love you.
