A Very Victorian Como Conservatory / Zoo

Como Conservatory Charity Event

I went to the Como Conservatory in St. Paul, Minnesota
on Saturday for a Walmart Charity Event.
My daughter had invited me to join her fellow employees, because she knew I had always been wishing to see the Conservatory and the Japanese garden.
I am just lucky I have a daughter with a
kind giving heart, who also likes to do
those walks for charity events. [smile,]
She believes strongly in most of those that she does.



These gals are wearing the winning t- shirts of the day. Sorry it is a bit hard to read. [They used the colors of the sunken garden!]

This particular Charity event was partaken by other teams of Walmart employees from Minnesota and Wisconsin. It was held at the Como Recreation area with a kickoff of several speakers and the last from Miss Minnesota, with our national song. [ She is a very accomplished singer]. Each participant was to obtain donations from other people to the charity as well as walk around the lake three times to a total of five miles.

After the completion of the walk and a little lunch, awards were given. Before we would be done and go off to home or to the conservatory and zoo above the hill we would get together to hear from the hosts and speakers. We heard of the need of those who would benefit from this event. Several of those parents and the children expressed their thanks. Once I heard the struggling cerebral palsy child speak, memories briefly flooded back to me of years around 1970.

I was drawn into this charity event because my daughter wanted to give me the opportunity to see the gardens. I admit I hadn't correctly understood what in particular part of cancer this was about. Soon I realized it was not cancer, and I clearly understood the charity was about the aid for Gillette Hospital and handicapped children.

I had a few moments of regret that I didn't realize it sooner. When it is about their cause and the children, I have felt it deeply in my heart, since my years of attending a Junior college in Worthington, Minnesota, when I had worked as a aide in the Handicapped Children's dorm on the opposite side of the lake from the college. The name has changes since, and I am not sure if the name has changed more than once. Of course this was my pre-adult years, and I was very mallable those years. I carry sentimental feelings deeply for those three years I lived there for all I met in that life time. So, unknowingly the daughter had given me something unexplainably heart felt more than she knew the Como trip would be. I had helped somehow something I believed in and I hope others with Walmart will continue to help their cause.

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Could I stop being a genealogist for one weekend? No!
Well, kind of. I kept quiet enough due to the wind and my physical exertion helped with that score, but it was there lurking as I had conversations with my new acquaintance from India as the three of us walked around Lake Como with all the others participants.

Well really walking around the lake, even though rather windy at times, requires conversation, from someone who also likes to have a little friendly conversation. She had told me that she has also lived in England and Germany. I didn't know have enough in my knowledge to converse much about England. Nor did I completely understand with her accent just where she said in Germany she lived [smile], however I did get one answer that satisfied my inner genealogist for the day that I had wondered about for some time. Yes, Germans drive on the wrong side of the car too! [ I refrained from real genealogy talk. Had we done another round and had my daughter allowed it, it might have happened. tee hee]

Raschme [ probably spelled incorrectly] didn't go with us to the zoo and conservatory since she had been there before.

The Conservatory.
I had mentally anticipated and figured what the conservatory would be like. I expected the formal arrangement of a Victorian sunken garden and the Victorian typical palm room, etc. And of course I was right. I love being right. I had not expected that the sunken garden, fern room, would draw me into the experience of wanting to capture the scene for later viewing as much as it did. I went through fifty pictures on two disposable cameras [ sorry it was not digital] and my daughter, who takes them so well, did a few digital pictures too. [ She has given me permission to blog a few, isn't she sweet.] I will have more at my Sunnyside blog later on.