John Paul Jones Is Watching Over Me

                                      Linking with Our World Tuesday 
                             This is part of my Memory Monday series.

Back in the mid '60s I was a member of the Naval Academy Garden Club in Annapolis, Maryland. It was an exciting two years and I learned a lot. 

In the fall the members planted hundreds and hundreds of tulips along the walkway leading to the chapel. 

We also made mum corsages to sell at the Academy football home game. I remember standing at the gate, my tray full of beautiful yellow mums tied with gold and blue ribbon. I could hear the game but my duty was to sell those mums. When my supply was gone I could then join the crowds to cheer the Midshipmen on.

The garden club members were in charge of arranging the flowers that decorated the altars in both the huge upstairs sanctuary and also the much smaller St. Andrews Chapel in the basement.

Being in the basement was a bit scary... at least to me. It was darker, more closed in, with church offices lined up along the hall. In the very center was a large sarcopagus where John Paul Jones was interred.

I just always felt like he was watching over my shoulder as I trimmed leaves off blossoms and placed them in the large vases. I was being silly but it was comforting to know that other garden club members were there with me.

John Paul Jones sarcopagus