L. G.

Last week I wrote about how I connected with L. G. Allen, because he brought back lychee seeds from China and grew one for twenty years before it fruited, and it was delicious and he named it Sweet Song after his lady friend in China, and how Wayne propagated it and many years later gave me three of them, and how I loved the story and the name so much that I called my hobby business SweetSong Groves after L. G.'s lychee variety.

Arriving in Florida a dozen years after L. G.'s passing, I missed the opportunity to meet him. But Wayne was kind enough to share some remembrances that L. G.'s descendants wrote in tribute to him.

L. G.'s early life taught him to be a survivor. Growing up, he worked at various jobs, including in his father's brickyard in Montrose, Colorado, but found time to develop a lifelong interest in the outdoors and the natural world. In his teen years, his mother and brother were killed in a car accident. That, and the onset of the Great Depression when he was 17, forced him to grow up in a hurry, and to develop the knack of picking up new skills very quickly.

He married in 1936 and had one daughter. To support his family, he worked very long hours at Dupont, first in the payroll department and later with the newfangled IBM machines. He developed many other interests, including a lifelong fascination in working with clay and ceramics. It was that passion that would later take him to China to study Chinese art and rare porcelains, and would someday put three lychee sisters in my grove.

The tributes to L. G. paint a picture of a loving father and grandfather, a hardworking man who never tired of learning. He continued to grow in knowledge and wisdom throughout his life--- and accepted what life gave him with wit and humor. Two of his sayings became instant favorites of mine: “It's easier to get into than to get out of,” and “A chore done good beats two done ragged.” How very true.

Everything is connected to everything else, and each of us leaves a wake that spreads out and touches the lives of many others. L. G.'s put three Sweet Song sisters in mine.