pringtime Love vs. Poison Ivy

aron Von Lodge was the head of a small country known as Lilliland near Switzerland. The time was the early 1900s.

A local physician reported to the Baron that a lot of young people had come down with poison. It was springtime and the physician reported the same problem last year and for the last several years. The young people did not know each other and they did not all go on the same annual picnic. However, it was noted that there were an equal number of young men as young women. The Baron was requested to do something about it.

The Baron said he would bring up the problem at his next meeting with his chief advisor Professor Hamblin. Lady Angela of Alpine Castle would also be at this meeting since half of the people with poison ivy were women.

At the meeting Lady Angela said that since it was springtime and romance was in the air a lot of young people would have a moonlight picnic by the shore of Castle Lake. There was a favorite spot called Lovers' Cove where young people liked to go with their picnic baskets and blankets. Since it was dark, perhaps the young people did not see that they had placed their blankets on a bed of poison ivy.

The next day the Baron sent the gardener to Lovers' Cove to see if there was poison ivy there. He reported back that indeed there was and that it could easily be removed.

The Baron ordered the poison ivy removed and English ivy planted in its place. Lady Angela and Professor Hamblin both liked that idea.

The local physician asked all his patients if they knew of the place called Lovers' Cove. They did not have to admit that they went there, just that they had heard of the place. They all did and so the physician felt that the poison ivy problem was resolved with the removal of the plants.

Later Lady Angela suggested to the Baron that they take a blanket and picnic basket out to Lovers' Cove to see if they would find any poison ivy. While they were walking over to the cove in the dark, they accidentally stumbled over two people on a blanket. It was very dark, but one of the people sounded like Professor Hamblin. Sure enough, it was the Professor with a date who said that they, too, had to see for themselves if all the poison ivy was gone.