Mrs. Bergman

In the last two years a new business has been established South on Highway 25, Season's Harvest, a commercial greenhouse outfit, which has expanded several times in modular fashion. An article in the local paper gave the name Bergman to this enterprise, and a friend in the gardening business said that "Yes, there were Bergmans in the plant and greenhouse business all over the place" Perhaps this was the latest incarnation of this.

Well, I thought back to Mrs. Bergman, who ran a greenhouse/plant operation on Highway 36 in Roseville (?), Minnesota. I was travelling 36 to a woman friend's place at the time, helping her to develop her side garden. Plants were needed and this place was handy to say the least. When I first saw her she appeared to be an ancient one, wizened somewhat, her wrinkled skin very dark with the sun, white hair pulled back in a kind of bun, with a bandanna. Her helpers addresses her as Mrs. Bergman, and I soon found myself calling her that too.

I let her know that I was in the gardening and landscape business, had been gardening since I was a child, on and off, and displayed a modest knowledge of her plant stock and let her know what I was looking for. She had quite a few plant flats that were somewhat bedraggled (mostly a matter of keeping up with the watering), and some were marked down as bargains. The interesting thing was that she either refused to listen and remember what I shared with her, or she just wanted me to know that she was going to "educate" me regardless of what I knew or thought I knew.

I've been there before, I'm sure you have as well. But Mrs. Bergman made it different somehow. Hers was a kind of ancient feminist stance, not only applied to her help, but to me, and presumably other male customers as well .. perhaps with women customers too, I don't know (I wish I could have observed her with other women). She was an authority, and part of her stick
was to instruct you on what she knew, regardless of what you might know. She got away with it with her style, she "laid it" & you were expected to go along.

So, I called the Mr. Bergman of Season's Harvest and asked if this venerable lady might be one of his family members; or, if not did he know her, know if she was still alive. No answer, yet. But I'm going to call again one of these days. Off season, the man may be in another state, perhaps a "snow bird," I don't know. So what (?), as Andy Warhol would have asked. Well, this aged woman was of interest, from another world in a sense, and if she is around my guess is that people are still addressing her as Mrs. Bergman.