Luncheon in the Greenhouse

      Years ago, I found a picture of a group of men sitting at a long table in the greenhouse.  It was pretty weird… no explanation.  The long dining table was sitting atop a super long bench inside the chrysanthemum growing house.  I could make out my Grandpa Joe standing at the left rear of the table, but the other 30 (or so) men peering around each other for the photo op, were unrecognizable to me.
 
      I’m not sure how much weight those growing benches were designed to carry but I don’t think it was built to hold the burden of that many men perched on a single bench. 

       I’m sure Grandpa Joe had calculated the load and added the necessary support for the extra heft… at least I had never heard of a massive collapse involving a group of men, dressed in suits, dining in the greenhouse in the middle of the day.

       If I hadn’t found the picture, I wouldn’t have known such an event had even occurred.  Fun picture, no idea what was going on.  Fast forward to my cousin Cindy bringing over some family picture albums and scrapbooks last year.  Every once in a while, I open an old album, peruse its contents and learn something new. 

       A few weeks ago, I found an article that I believe was printed in the Fremont newspaper – the date listed above the article was January 11, 1929.  It was a short little piece - the headline read “PUBLICITY FOR LOCAL KIWANIS CLUB IS GIVEN”.   I knew that my grandfather was a long-time member of the local Kiwanis Club – even attending meetings when he traveled with Grandma Lil across the country.  I wasn’t sure if the article would give me any insight to his life but decided to read it rather than pass onto the next page… here is what the article said.
 
          Fremont and one of its business houses, Greens Greenhouses, are receiving world-wide publicity this month as the result of a novel luncheon tendered members of the Fremont Kiwanis club in the greenhouses las November.

           The Greens invited the club to a luncheon in the greenhouse which proved to be a real surprise.  The luncheon table was set in one of the greenhouses amid a profusion of hot-house flowers, chiefly 20 varieties of chrysanthemums. 

         A picture of the luncheon guests seated at the table inside the greenhouse, together with a write-up of the novel stunt, appears in the January issue of F.T.D. News, official publication for members of Florists’ Telegraph Delivery.

         The magazine goes to more than 3,000 florists in the United States and Canada, to more than 400 members in England and the British Isles, 70 members in Germany, 25 members in France, 18 members in Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Hawaiian Island, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and a number of other countries.

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     Finding these news clippings and putting them together with a picture is so entertaining for me.  Sharing the picture and the newspaper article on Oma Sue’s Blog is my attempt at preserving family anecdotes for my little family.  I wish I could find the FTD News Magazine, I would love to share that… maybe it will turn up one day.   

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