Wednesday, September 21, 2022

The lady and the agave

Andrew tells me that vintage photos of agaves are extremely hard to come by. There are lots of cactus, houseplants, botanic gardens. Search for agaves though and the selection is narrowed. This one came to be mine on my last birthday (see prior plant focused photos he's given me be searching the label photo quickie). I love her expression, it looks like she's smiling at the agave, rather than the photographer.


Is the agave hers? Or did she sit down on the steps to pose as they were passing by? Where was the photo taken? The steps (especially those to the left in the background) have me thinking of NYC, but really it could be a shot from any urban area. The container is unusual*, and there's no date. Anything offer up clues to you?

* I received an email from Roger Gossler who tells me that container is a soy tub, his family had them in the early 1960's, he assumes they came from Japan via San Francisco where his dad found them.

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All material © 2009-2022 by Loree L Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

7 comments:

  1. She's definitely looking at the agave but, along with some admiration, there seems to be a touch of apprehension about getting too close...

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    1. Her arms are definitely positioned away from the agave!

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  2. That agave was from Merida's first love, Melvin. His is a sad story. Melvin knew how much Merida loved agaves. In fact, he planted a huge 40 x 150 ft area behind his house just to get Merida to come over. The two would sit on a bench in the shade of a mesquite tree sipping the finest tequila and discussing the pros and cons of Agave ‘Bleached Blonde’ versus Agave gypsophila variegata and the ultimate Agave x amourifoila “Twisted Tongue’. The two sometimes twisted tongues themselves. (A-hem...)

    Anyway, Melvin went on an agave-hunting expedition deep into the hinterlands of Mexico in the hope of finding the Agave ‘Albopilosa’. Alas, as he came into a valley filled with what he hoped were Albopilosa, he stepped on a rattle snake, was bitten on the ankle, and fell to the ground in agony.

    In the meantime, his guide, Diego, had wandered off looking for a large yucca or rock to relieve himself. By the time Diego returned, Melvin had met his maker. Diego felt bad for Melvin, but actually not that bad. He had sort of fancied Merida for himself and now that Melvin was gone, he could pursue her.

    Diego looked around for an agave to bring to Merida and stumbled upon the agave you see in the photo. He ordered the soy tub from Amazon when the company used printed media in the 1960’s and used to be called the Sears and Roebuck catalogue.

    After a month of mourning, Merida met with Diego at his hacienda, and Diego presented the agave in the photo to her. He told her Melvin intended it for her, but he embellished the story and said that as Melvin lay dead, 50 more rattle snakes emerged and surrounded that agave and that he (Diego) had to fight them off to dig it up. Merida was impressed. They soon began living together, and Merida went on to become a famous environmental activist while Diego made money (until now) in the stock market with his investments in rare agaves. Who knew?

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    1. OMG! So good! You had me laughing, crying, and begging for more! (Peter, is that you???)

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  3. Now you have me curious. I'll have to think about this one. Great photo, and there's definitely a back story (or many) on this one. :)

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    1. Imagine if a creative writing class was assigned to write a story based on this (or any singular) vintage photo. Wouldn't their essays be fun to read?

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