Friday, March 28, 1997
Bluebonnets welcomed Hawley lady back to Texas
By Ken Ellsworth
HAWLEY - The familiar spring sight of Texas bluebonnets lifts
all our spirits, but maybe none so high as those of Mary McKnight
of Hawley.
"I learned to love Texas flowers as a child," McKnight,
68, a Texas native, told me during a telephone call early this
week.
A number of years ago, she said, it was her misfortune to have
to leave Texas for northern climes because her husband Raymond,
a civil service worker, was transferred to Battle Creek, Mich.
"Nobody told us how cold it would be up there," Mary
McKnight said, and I could almost feel her shudder over the telephone.
Despite the move north, she determined, she said, to make the
best of the situation by taking some of the best of Texas with
her. What she took was a package of bluebonnet seeds.
"The first spring up here I'm going to grow some bluebonnets,"
she told herself at the time.
That was easier said than done in Michigan. Nevertheless, out
of a whole package of bluebonnet seeds, McKnight said she managed
to raise three plants in that cold place.
"I was so proud," McKnight said.
She was so proud that she took the plants to the hospital,
where she was employed, to show her fellow workers what beautiful
flowers bluebonnets are and brag a bit about the charms and beauties
of Texas.
"These are Texas bluebonnets," she crowed.
But McKnight just got a chilling teasing in return from her
cold-blooded co-workers, who were not impressed with things Texan,
and who enjoyed having a little fun at a Texan's expense.
"Those are just plain old Dutchman's britches," the
Northerners kidded, knowing full well, probably, that the two
plants are distinctly different.
Those Northerners went a step farther, too.
"They laughed at my accent," McKnight said, laughing
at the memory.
Thankfully, Mary and Raymond McKnight finally made it back
to their beloved Texas, leaving Michigan on a day when it was
10-below zero.
McKnight remembers their arrival in Texas on a warm April day
in 1981 quite well. Looking out the car's window, she saw bluebonnets.
"Raymond, Raymond, stop, stop, stop, stop the car!"
McKnight yelled, and her husband obeyed.
"I got out and sat down in the middle of all those bluebonnets.
I didn't pick them, I just played with them," McKnight said.
"And there was my husband. You should have seen him. He was
still in the car, sitting there shaking his head, wondering what
is wrong with that crazy woman."
This column covers the cities and communities of this part
of West Texas. To contact Ken Ellsworth, call (800) 588-6397 or
(915) 673-4271, Ext. 381, or write to P.O. Box 30, Abilene, TX
79604.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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