June 22 - White Clover

White clover is in bloom on every patch of green, city and country. Misguided suburbanites try to eradicate it from their lawns, but they are fools. The triple-leaves and sweet, creamy-white flowers provide precious summer entertainment for children.

First, there's the hunt for the elusive four-leaf clover. My sisters and I had faith that such a thing could be found, and we spent hours sitting in the grass combing through the clover patches. Our brother Tom told of a place in the woods where an entire clearing was full of four-leaf clovers. I believed, even though he couldn't tell me exactly where it was. I knew the woods pretty well, but Tom was three years older and much smarter. And a much better story-teller.

The second joy of clover is plucking the stems as close to the ground as possible and tying them together to make bracelets, necklaces and garlands. We wore clover necklaces all summer. When they got dry and brittle, we just made another. I was an extremely ambitious child and set out to make a clover chain that went all the way around our house. I don't recall actually achieving this goal, but I do remember stretching my incredibly long chain fully along the attached garage to the back of the house up to the picture window of the living room.