I didn’t sleep much on the night of July 15, 2006. For reasons I can’t explain, I had convinced myself that there was something utterly frightful about turning 50 years old.
OK, not the turning part, per se. The part that scared me was BEING 50, because, I figured, that was really close to BEING dead -- or at least much closer than I was on the night of July 15, 2006, as the clock ticked down my final minutes as a 40-something.
When it reached the magic minute -- 1:11 a.m., for those keeping score at the Wichita Falls General Hospital nursery -- I remember thinking, “well, that was awfully nondescript.” And it was. Fifty came and went without so much as an earth tremor. My wife didn’t even awaken for the occasion, which is just as well, because, despite my angst in the days/minutes preceding, this really wasn’t an occasion.
Here’s something that is:
Ralph S. Moore turned 101 this week. And he is celebrating by donating all of his breeding stock to Texas A&M University’s horticultural sciences department to assure continued research in miniature roses.
Texas A&M already operates a rose breeding program and maintains the Robert E. Basye Endowed Chair in Rose Breeding. Moore’s collection will expand the breeding effort beyond traditional varieties of roses to include the miniature types. In addition to all remaining plants and breeding stock, Moore’s gift includes 80 rose patents, a book collection and an unspecified cash contribution for program operation.
Information about Texas A&M’s rose breeding program and for opportunities to contribute in support of this effort can be found here.
As fascinating as the site is, I’m betting information about Moore’s century and a year are an even better tale. For instance, I wonder how he celebrated his youth -- like, say, the time he turned 50.
-- Yale
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