[Community_garden] Brother Pete's VG questions and Fred's car

[MQuattle at aol.com]

Brother Pete,
You might want to contact Perry Wheelock, Cultural Resource Specialist at  
Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC. _perry_wheelock at nps.gov_ 
(mailto:perry_wheelock at nps.gov)    Because gardens were historical, Rock Creek Park took over 
running  of several city Victory Gardens which had gone on for  years after WWII.  
(Not sure when/how this came about but Perry  would know.)  I used to garden 
in one of them -- Melvin Hazen  Community Garden -- and there were some very 
long-term  gardening ladies who hearkened back to the 50s (and  had taken over 
their plots from family and friends) so they would have  lots of good stories. 
 Perry may be able to put you in touch  with a few as well as provide some 
helpful info. for your  article.  If you can't reach her, give me a holler and 
I'll see if a friend  who still gardens there can rustle up some names.
 
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has a  big garden, 
modeled after WWII Victory Gardens, with all sorts of  heirloom veggies.  Right 
now, the museum is closed for renovation so  I'm not sure what's going on with 
the garden.  But they had a  brochure, focused school visits on the garden, 
etc., so it might be worth a  google search to see who was in charge and if he or 
she might be able  to help with your questions.
 
Finally, if you're interested, I've written a children's  novel--Jackson 
Jones and Mission Greentop (Random House, ages 7 to 10)  about a contemporary boy 
and his buddies trying to save their  city community garden (discovered to be 
a WWII Victory Garden) from  being bulldozed by developers (an all too-common 
scenario these days,  alas).  Jackson's garden is based on the Melvin Hazen 
garden  mentioned above and there's a cranky old guy in it who gardened there as 
a  boy in WWII.  Do let me know if you'd like to chat about it.
 
Your article sounds interesting.  Where will you publish it?  I'd  love a 
chance to read it.
 
For Fred,
Your car sounds wonderful!  It reminds me of the adored vehicle  of my 
childhood--only our car smelled not of coffee but of fish since my dad  took us 
fishing a lot.  Don said it best, I think-- you're a green and  earthy guy!  Throw 
some rakes and shovels in the back and let the Brits  park their spats and 
toppers amongst your spades and "go green"  down the street.
 
Mary  Quattlebaum
Children's Author, Instructor,  Reviewer
MQuattle at aol.com
www.maryquattlebaum.com
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