Growing up in a small town was a great experience for me. I can still smell the dew on the grass, the rooster crowing in the early morn. The buttermilk biscuits bakingand the bacon sizzling. Those were the days.

My mothers father grew cotton, vegetables, hogs and cows. When I was a child around nine years old my mother and her three younger sisters chopped the cotton if my granddaddy was not able to hire workers. On one plot of land stood these huge pear and mulberry trees.  Boy, did I love eating the pears and mulberries.  My mom would pack a lunch for us, put a quilt on the ground for us to nap on under the giant shade trees, and off they would go chopping and talking sister talk. She'd tell us, me particularly since I am the eldest to not eat the fruit. It would make us sick she stressed.  It wouldn't make us sick because we ate it, but because we would eat too much. We would play and nap, all the while I was looking in the trees wanting to take a bite.  The pears were huge with a slight yellow color, so much larger than the ones we buy in the grocery store.  After we had eaten our lunch with my mom and her sisters I could wait any longer.  After they went back to work it was time for dessert. I found a stick, knocked some pears down and gave all three of my siblings some too. Delicious, can't you taste it now?  I still can and that was over 45 years ago. Next, I pulled limbs down and tackled the mulberries.  We didn't have wet wipes back then, so there wasn't anything to wipe our hands and mouth on except the face towel my mom brought for us to wipe up after lunch.

Finally our day was over around 2pm.  Hot and tired my mom came to pack our things and take us home.  Didn't I tell you not to eat the pears and mulberries she said?  I already told my brother and little sisters not to tell ,because we would get into trouble. We didn't, we didn't, wide eyed we all sang.  Yes, you did she would say.  We wondered how she could possible know. We threw our remains away in the bushes or across the road.  She knew because our fingers and mouths were red. We didn't or I didn't think of that. My mom only smiled.