Friday, October 12, 2007

Childhood Memories

This week while returning to my office from the break room, I passed some one's open office door and spotted them peeling what appeared to be a kiwi fruit. You may wonder why on earth I would be blogging about something so mundane and I'll explain.
That simple act sparked a memory. I'm not sure how old I was but somewhere around the general age of 10 I saw a kiwi fruit for the first time. Perhaps I was even younger. Mom's family all live in the general area of Atlanta, GA. Just about every summer when I was a little girl we would travel down there from Rochester to visit. It was always great fun and since we were there so rarely, everyone seemed to make a big deal of us. One of my uncles, who has no children of his own, seemed to really enjoy spending time with my sister and me. He always had some great thing planned. He took us water skiing, sailing in FL, and once took us to his job at Ma Bell. While there, he let us get in a bucket truck and touch the top of a telephone pole. I thought that was marvelous! I'm sure my parents were involved in the planning of some of these activities but in my mind it was all my really fun and exciting Uncle!
Back to the original point of this blog......
One of these summers, we had gone to my Uncle's house to see him. I was so fascinated by his house because he had a fence that went all the way around his yard and he had a gate that closed at the bottom of his driveway. I had never seen a fence like that before. In Rochester, at least where I lived, people only had fences around their backyards. (Later, as an adult, I observed that kind of fencing was fairly popular in the South) My Uncle had two dogs, Hansel and Gretel. I thought that was so cool. I can't remember them very well now, only their names and I think Gretel was a Schnauzer. That night was so hot like all southern nights are and my Uncle offered us some cold fruit. One of the fruits was a kiwi. To my little eyes it looked so disgusting! This brown, fuzzy fruit! Ick! Then he cut into it and it was GREEN! I was SO uninterested in trying it. But I really liked my Uncle and he said it was good and to try it. So I puffed myself up, reached out for a piece, and LOVED it! I couldn't believe something so unattractive was so sweet and good. I don't remember if my sister tried it or not. I would suspect so. I don't even remember much else from that night or trip but I remember my first Kiwi!

2 comments:

SLOW said...

You are a very heartwarming niece and can remember so very much. It is always a joy to either hear or read some of your memories. I am very proud to have been able to spend time with all of you. You know, this really makes my life seem to have so much more meaning. I will walk around all day feeling proud.

cj said...

Yes, I do remember my first Kiwi! I don't remember quite as much as you do about our trips to Atlanta, but I definitely remember the kiwi fruit, the fence, and the dogs. I remember thinking that it wouldn't be good to eat all those little brown seeds. I too enjoyed the fruit, and enjoy sharing them with my two girls. I have memories of our Uncle always having a new car, and he bought us LARGE matching stuffed animals.