"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

"WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?


( words and music by Pete Seeger)


Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Girls have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?"


Geesh....does this song and this flower ever bring me back, waaaaaay back. I remember tramping through the woods of the Pacific Northwest as a newbie Campfire Girl at Camp Sealth, singing this song and probably not knowing what it was about.


Midway through the hike our counselor (THE coolest gal in the world) stopped dead in her tracks. She raised her index finger to her lips and whispered.........."shhhhh". Wide eyed and oh, so impressionable, all the campers stood very still. Cool counselor pointed, in reverence, to a flower, the trillium. "A" trillium --- as there was only one. She told us they were a protected flower species in Washington State and we were to never, ever pick one. Heads shook back and forth affirming the sin would never, ever happen.


Last night, tramping down my long driveway I found her again. No, not the counselor silly (she would be trespassing!). The trillium. Oh, I have one too! Deep in the woods she stood, a diva in the forest. One bright splash of white and yellow in the deep green. Snap, I took her picture. I didn't touch her.


I know she might not be there next spring.