The Magic Geranium

I remember this story from a long long time ago...well not quite. I only remember the title, I cannot, for the life of me, recall who the author was/is, which book I found it in, or exactly what the story was. With this vague memory, I sought refuge in our friendly neighbourhood search engine....yes Gooooooogle!


And this is what it found (Pssstt...Google never fails!):

"Story of an old lady living in a rickety old house. She receives a red geranium. Displays it on her kitchen table. The red geranium made the table look horrible, so she fixed it up and painted it. This made the chairs look shabby, so she painted them. This made the rest of the kitchen look horrible, so she proceeded to fix up her whole house. End of story is the lady and her house sparkled and flourished all because of the red geranium.

Read Aloud Funny Stories-Jane Thayer, 1958. The story is called The Magic Geranium."

Even though the story isnt complete and not a lot of detailed information is available online, this is the gist of the story as I recall. It might have been the graphics that illustrated this simple and small tale or just my mind conjuring images, this story and the mental image of it has remained in my mind all this while. Just as I've always have had mental images of the story "Gone with the wind" and most of what I saw in the movie coincided with what I'd imagined it to be and hence also my soft corner for Georgia. But I digress.

I have had an affinity to invest in potted geraniums with disastrous results before.

But the thought has always stayed with me and when I was presented with a clean, empty abode......the first thing that came to my mind upon seeing this cute kitchen window was to start the whole enterprise with a .....................drum roll................geranium plant, of course!!!!

Yes, just like Mrs Wistful in the story book. The first thing to get installed is this beautiful red geranium plant. And just like the story goes, the rest of it will just automagically be beautiful.....cos its a magic geranium plant- silly!! Get with the program! We're half-way there, having made a jump start with some magic action.

More updates forthcoming ....but for now we've all heard the wise old men say that "A good start is half the battle" havent we?

Harry Emerson Fosdick
He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end.