Botanical Garden

I surprise my wife from time to time because she says, I am much more inclined to follow the rules than she would expect from me, even after nearly 15 years of marriage. She thinks I'm a rebel, but I'm not really; its hard to be a rebel if you don't believe in anarchy. My theory is that the fewer waves you make the more you can get away with, which is one reason why I don't put loud mufflers on my motorcycle. I get away with riding a lot faster if I'm not drawing attention to myself, and I like to be able to do that without bothering anyone. However, put up a No Entry sign and I will lead the pack obediently in the opposite direction. I don't violate signs as a general rule. Which makes the entrance to the botanical gardens a bit of a trial, there are just so many of them. Yessiree, that's where I parked the Nissan, right there! where it says park... Our visiting relatives like plants so we took Cousins Bob and Lyn to see the Botantical Gardens on north Stock Island.I like to park in the shade, even in winter, its force of habit in these parts, and a survivial technique in summer.The Gardens have been expanding for a while and more expansion is planned in the rubble-filled area where the Monroe County Public Health building used to sit, now marked with an advertising sign:In case there be any doubt at all, signs will tell the anxious visitor exactly how to proceed and what perils await within:Even though the "donation" has increased from four dollars when last I was here to five whole dollars these days. I guess they have to fund the burgeoning signs somehow. And then there's the free paperwork. Cousin Lyn managed to persuade the overly enthusiastic front desk volunteer that she only needed one set of guides to the Gardens and still ended up with a fistful :And the sergeant-major like volunteer at the gate was all over us when she learned the visitors were from out of town. She pretty much had their tour planned all the way till sunset (they never did make it to Mallory Square, those Chicago slackers).I think the volunteers at the Garden are proud of their expanded flourishing oasis off College Road. They have a right to be because it has become quite the formal garden after many years of happy neglect. They built the visitors' center, they even stuck in a massive fountain, in a sort of amphitheater, whose purpose remains to me, somewhat obscure:All this organizational efficency is a little hard for me to take, not just because I am a rebel at heart (who obeys the signs) but because I remember the good old days. Quelle drag, I am sounding like an old fart, because I've lived here too long.In 2000, when I was living on my boat parked at Sunset Marina, just up the street I would spend lots of time wandering the gardens. In those good old days I would go home, pick up my Labrador Emma and we would wander the garden at will.These days happily they still allow dogs on leashes which was the ignored rule back then too. Emma had the freedom of the garden, the gate hung open on a hinge, there was no visitor's center, or elaborate fountain or even a marked parking lot. I left the car tucked in a corner behind the shuttered Health Center and off we would romp, through the bushes along the barely marked trails. There was no entrance fee, not even disguised as a "donation" and just a few of the plants were labeled. Today the plants are catalogued.At dusk there was an excellent chance of encountering a residentially challenged local subject bedding down under the bushes and at dawn one could occasionally meet a man arching his back comfortably as he watered those same bushes after he had packed up his camp. There were benches which made this an superb place for a pizza picnic, and on windy days I loved to sit out and alternately listen to Emma panting as she lumbered around, or to the wind whistling through the trees. It was my refuge, a place barely noticed by the mainstream population, tourists or monied donors.

Then a bored retiree came to town and started looking for a useful way to fill her time and the botanical garden fell under her glare. She's done a lot over the years and the gardens nowadays take in lots of kids on field trips, lots of botany students on summer programs and expansion plans are well in hand for the gardens to spread across the open space towards Highway One. Cheers from all sides, except me who suffers from an excess of nostalgia.It is progress and I have come to realise I must bow to it. Change is good, even if you can't have a picnic in the gardens anymore. Emma has long since gone to her reward but the gardens actually are pretty nice even if they are over organized. The new boardwalks are made of recycled plastic "wood" and are wheelchair accessible. The plants are labeled but the garden's essential air of mystery and its forest-like depth has been maintained and enhanced. And the dudes peeing in the bushes are, like Emma, banished to memory. In this case the substantial boundary fence keeps undesirables out.

The educational drive is what makes the Botantical Gardens a socially enhanced enviroment and education was buzzing along merrily at numerous outdoor locations when we were there. Not least near the entrance where kids were being encouraged to carve their initials, in leaves in this case:It was a very pleasant trip, a journey of discovery as I piloted Lyn and Bob from shade to sunlight, trundling down the boardwalk, past exotic ferns that elicited squeals of delight and grunts of puzzlement. Bob fingered this very gingerly as the photographic possibilities rolled through his brain. I just pointed and shot.And so it was, the stroll got us back to the beginning, a very good place to start:In the end in fact I came to the conclusion, reluctantly, that change can be good, and a five dollar entry fee, even if disguised as a "donation," can make for a greatly improved garden. Next time I will delight in parking in the clearly marked spaces and I shall stride into the visitor's center with joy in my heart. For this is the way of the new improved future, we may have nowhere to live but our Botanical garden will be second to none.