Windfall Friendships
It’s fall, bringing such beautiful weather. Today I passed by an old apple tree which no one seemed to care much for. There were some windfalls on the ground, so I picked up a few and put them in my pockets. Some sample nibbling on the way home told me that they were delicious (the taste, not the variety!).
So the next day I took a small tote bag along to pick up a few more. I saw on arrival that the lawn had bee recently mowed - right over all the apples - so it’s clear that the owner doesn’t want them. As I started to pick some freshly freshly-fallen apples, an old lady walking by stopped. She said that she had also been wondering about the fruit - maybe for applesauce. I agreed She then took about four (filled her hands) and we walked on together. She showed me her house and said her name was “Marjorie,” and that she knew the “Mary Kay” lady, who surprisingly, was my own friend, Karen.
September 5, 2005
Today on my walk I met “Peter” and his wife “Terry,” who are the owners of the apple tree. I explained about my collecting windfalls and asked, and received permission to take any apples I wanted. His neighbor, Marjorie, is also his tenant, he said, was from New Jersey, so we were all “fellow Easterners,” he said. Today I got another 15 apples, some with Peter’s help.
As I came home, I thought about how, in a sense, we are all members of concentric circles, endlessly meeting and parting with each other.
We always had two apple trees in the backyard when I was younger, planted by Uncle Al when Daddy was a boy. We used to play baseball with the windfalls, which got rather messy! The sqirrels had a feast on those windfalls, too! Both trees died about ten years ago, and I finally had to have them cut down a few years later. The apples were always so wormy and rotten that we never ate them. I don't miss raking the mushy windfalls. But I miss the shade, and climbing up to sit on the biggest bough with a book, and the blossoms in spring.
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