A very good friend sent me a link to an article in the Huffington post today, “10 Facts to impress your bored kid while apple picking this fall,” and I had to laugh. Not a very interesting article for many, but I do remember well and the article brought back some funny memories.
I am not sure about the exact definition of a tomboy, but I think I was one, when I was young. I wasn’t particularly fond of dolls and other typical girl stuff and I didn’t like to wear dresses or nice shoes…not that I had many. I was an outside kid, loved to play with others, but although enjoyed time alone. I liked books and loved to read, so whenever I could, I walked to my secret hiding place where I would read for hours. My secret hiding place was an old apple tree; high up there sitting in the branches I was almost invisible to the rest of the world. To the world, but not to my Grandmother, who always sensed where I was.
She always had a fit when she found me sitting in the tree again. “Girls don’t climb on trees like monkeys,” was her favorite statement and I always grinned, I liked monkeys. She made me come down and I often I finished the chapter sitting in the grass, leaning against the tree trunk.
“Climbing trees is dangerous”, she said and I knew she was right. I could fall down and hurt myself or worse. I understood what she was saying, but just couldn’t help it when I saw my tree. It was like a calling.
I got in trouble for climbing trees on a regular base, but every year in fall, that’s when a miracle happened and my Grandmother changed her mind.
Then she was eagerly waiting for me to come home from school on Friday, she stood there with two woven baskets and an old belt. I knew what that meant. All the rules would fly out of the window for a few days, because it was picking time.
The adults – the same adults who told us over and over that climbing on trees was dangerous – sent us kids up on the ladders, so that we could pick all the apples in our reach and my Grandmother was no exception.
She put the old belt around my waist and attached the two woven baskets to it, each on one side. “This way you have your hands free and you can pick faster,” she said, when I asked why I had to wear the belt.
I spend days up in the trees, loaded basket after basket full with apples and climbed the ladder up and down like a monkey, until there were no more apples left. I was always glad when Sunday came and I could go back to boarding school.
Years later, when I was adult I asked my Grandmother about her picking rules and she looked at me, her eyes were sparkling “I don’t remember that,” she said while she turned around and went back in her kitchen.
I knew she was laughing inside and so was I. “Picking time” that is one of the childhood memories that I treasure.
How much fun we had then~!
Connect the Dots
Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that.
Far away and long ago…
When I lived in Brazil I had the opportunity of climbing trees for a whole summer…..
Turning fifty I decided to give up ,too , and buy my apples at the green-grocers’!
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Yep, I am a retired tree climber as well 🙂
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What a wonderful memory for so many reasons … outdoors, climbing trees, your grandmother, apples 🙂
I too climbed trees as a kid. Our neighbourhood had several excellent trees for climbing and I have many memories involving a view from the trees. Too bad none of them were apple trees 🙂
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Why am I not surprised that you were a tree climbing girl as well? I wish I could have more time an apple from my childhood. Apples today taste differently.
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Everything tastes differently … what happened to the green beans of my childhood?!! Glorious field tomatoes we ate like apples? … and mandarin oranges? Now they are just tough pulpy things with an orange flavouring.
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They get picked too early, lots of the fruits ripens on the ships during transport. We are lucky, we live in Ohio…farmland everywhere. I have 20 minutes to Amish country and their products still taste the way they should.
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You are lucky indeed!
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Ohio is pretty boring, that makes up for it 🙂
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What a charming story. Bet those apples tasted better than the ones today. I haven’t had an apple that tasted like an apple for years. http://judydykstrabrown.com/2015/10/09/no-news-is-bad-news/
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So true, me neither~!
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My summertime days were often spent binding sheafs of wheat. In those early days, the wheat fields would be cut by a scythe and handfuls of the cut wheat stalks hand bound into sheafs and packed togher in bunches standing uptight to ripen in the sun before being thrashed. Someone would always bringa tray of coffee and lunch. They were great times! The thrashing would be done by women in unison around a circle.
That art has gone and now the massive combines and trucks do it in splt second. Romance has gone out of farming like almost everything else.
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You know Gerard, we were lucky that we had experiences like that. I remember potato fires, planting, harvesting and working hard. I remember butchering on the farm as well as birth and death. We were lucky and I am glad we met.
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Great memories 🙂 I was not a tree climber. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I just didn’t have the knack. I had friends who could scramble up pretty much any tree and my granddaughter could do it too … but not me. Thanks for sharing!
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Beautiful memory.. 🙂 and I can see why you treasure it so 🙂 Wishing you a great weekend.. and hope you do not climb too many trees 😉
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I gave up climbing when I turned 50, old monkeys don’t look good on trees. 🙂
Wishing you a great weekend as well.
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🙂 LOL.. Love it .. 🙂 take care .. Hugs xxx
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I bet a lot of us have “apple-picking” type stories, don’t we! LOL I always loved picking apples in our friend’s orchard in the fall. But only to eat! Usually from a hay wagon on our way to a wiener roast!
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I suppose you are right 🙂
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what a great memory and a wonderful story. You wrote it so beautifully I could picture your grandmother and you the young girl
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Thank you Lisa, I had a great time writing it.
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