Mrs. Rohrer
Biography
Had a beautiful flower garden and generously shared flowers. Neighbor who supplied perennial starts for Diana’s flower garden. Her house had once been a rabbit hutch. Received a bouquet sprinkled with black pepper and remarked that she had never smelled pepper zinnias before.
Timeline
High school
Diana plants a flower garden
Wanting to beautify the house, Diana planted a garden her father tilled behind the garage. Mrs. Rohrer supplied perennial starts. Tiny mail-order evergreen starts mostly survived; some remained in Dee’s yard.
Diana's Chapterdate not given
A peppered bouquet for Mrs. Rohrer
The children tried to make Mrs. Rohrer sneeze by presenting flowers sprinkled with ground black pepper.
Bernie's Chapter
Stories mentioning Mrs.
- Remembered Faces, Flowers, and Childhood PlayBarbara lists people and families she remembers: Mrs. Rohrer shared flowers from her beautiful garden, and Mrs. Johnson asked Barbara to zip up her formals. She also recalls Old-lady Clyde, Earladine and Jean Hoglund, the Petersens, especially Eileen, and Sis Vergaine and her son Stevie, whose possible imprisonment she questions without confirming. The Hancocks had an abandoned little house where the children liked to play. The Ferrys and The Gillersteads are also remembered by name.
- A Car for College and a Family That Always HelpedDiana recalls demanding study habits, family gardening and tomato sales, and her anxious departure for college. Iris and Bill’s gift of a car made nursing school feasible. During an earlier John Deere & Company strike, Iris brought groceries when the family lacked money. Diana describes her scholarship, difficult college years, friendship with Martha Kawada, and graduation. Memories of planting a flower garden and helping haul water from the water works lead to gratitude for the family’s enduring support and resourcefulness.
- Pepper Zinnias and Comic-Strip MischiefThe children sprinkled black pepper on flowers for Mrs. Rohrer, hoping for exaggerated sneezing like something from the Nancy comic strip. Instead, she thanked them and commented on the unusual pepper zinnias. The narrator also recalls a favorite Nancy strip about taking revenge on a grapefruit.
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