Hosta 'Midas Touch' 24 August 2025

 

Around 1955 I was going to the American School in Mexico City. My mother taught in the high school. I was in the Grammar School in the 6^th grade. A woman called Mrs. Seifert picked us up with her son who drove a 1955 Studebaker. Because I was rude little idiot I kept telling them what an ugly car it was. How was I to know this?

The 1955 Studebaker line was designed by Raymond Loewy's team, with the "butter-knife" side trim on the President models being a key design element. While Virgil Exner was a prominent designer at Studebaker who had previously contributed to the design of the iconic Starlight coupe, the 1955 facelift was a continuation of the designs developed under Raymond Loewy.

I had a good friend in the early 60s who was studying art at Mexico City College. I was trying to be an engineer there (and failed). He would draw cars that to me looked like Italian shoes. I thought the y were ugly and I told him so. So many of the cars years later looked like my friend’s shoes.

Now because I am an old man I can quote my grandmother who would often tell me that the devil knows more not because he is the devil but because he is an old man.

I adore the shape of some of my hosta leaves. These of the gold/yellow Hosta ‘Midas Touch’ now somehow remind me of those ugly Studebakers. I am sure that Raymod Loewy would concur.