Liz, this one is for you!
Today Stephen and Timothy had out some balls and they were playing basketball. They would stand in the kitchen and throw the balls into my laundry basket and then Timothy would yell, "Cannonball!" because he knew that he should yell something and he figured that would work just fine.
Well, I was doing my usual thing of listening with half an ear to their play and I kept hearing Stephen talk about his "peach ball." I corrected him several times and said, "No, Honey. It's a beach ball." But he would always go back to saying PEACH ball so I gave up on the corrections. This went on for quite some time until the laughing got louder and more mischievious. That's when I decided that I'd better check into what was going on.
Liz, remember working at Rittman Orchard when we would be in the back room packing baskets of peaches and there would be some that just screamed out for us to become peaches with water on the brain?! Well, Stephen really, truly was playing with a PEACH ball because he had taken a peach from the refrigerator, dropped it, rolled it, and squished it until it became a water-on-the-brain peach! When I turned around to see what the laughter was all about, he said, "Look Mommy! It's my peach ball! Watch this!" And he stood up and armed himself to just smash it to the floor! Thankfully I was there and grabbed it before it slammed into the floor because that thing no longer had any flesh inside. No sir! It was pure peach juice and one last slam to the floor was bound to cause the poor thing to explode!
I wanted to be upset with him, but I was so fascinated with the memories that hit me of us standing back there at those machines with Judy and Becky making our own water-on-the-brain peaches. So instead of getting all upset with him, we examined it, commented about how it was amazing that the thing didn't split open all over the kitchen, and then gave promises not to do that again with a peach.
I stood there for awhile holding it and squishing it in my hands, feeling for the seed inside, before I pitched it out. It was unbelievable how many memories came flooding back just by holding a warm, super-squishy, water-on-the-brain peach! Happy memories, Liz! (Because there were a few, weren't there?)
3 comments:
My best peach memory from the orchard was picking them off the tree and eating them immediately. They were warmed from the sun and I have not tasted better peaches than those in the 20-some years since.
And you know how weird my memory is--believe it or not, um, I don't remember "water-on-the-brain" peaches. I had to work to remember Judy and Beacky's names. It's pitiful, I know.
However, I love your story. Stephen knew what he was talking about!
Oops, that's Becky. And what was Becky's sister's name? I do remember their brother, Edgar, because of that other girl (name?) yelling, "Eg-gar! I love you!"
I don't remember Becky's sister's name, and I had forgotten about Edgar! My foremost visual is of Anel and Robert and those humongous Akita spy dogs!
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