After my family moved away from the Midwest to the South we rarely got to see my grandparents. The summer after second grade we drove up to Ohio to visit my father's family. I loved visiting my grandparents they had a huge yard with beautiful gardens. They had raised 6 kids through the depression and the victory garden was a way of life. We had no sooner gotten to their home and my parents, siblings, aunts and cousins decided to go shopping. All I wanted to do was check out the yard so they agreed to leave me behind with Grandpa. My grandfather was old world. He was the son of German immigrants and was a hard working stiff. He never talked much to us and we were always just a little nervous around him. After about ten minutes inside the house with him........alone. I asked if I could go out in the yard to play. He said that would be fine but "don't eat the cherries". My grandparents had three cherry trees in their yard and they were full of ripe red delicous cherries. As I walked by them I assumed that my Grandpa just wanted to keep all these cherries to himself. So I helped myself to a few. Now as we all know no one can eat just one cherry. Soon enough I pulled the garden bench over to one of the cherry trees and had climbed up into it. I was picking cherries by the handfull and gobbling them down just as fast. Then........I heard the screen door slam. Oh no Grandpa was outside. I scurried down the tree and sat on the garden bench. I put a fist full of cherries in my mouth and swallowed them, pits and all. My grandpa rounded the corner and saw me under the tree. "You didn't eat the cherries did you?" As I was swallowing the last of my cherries I shook my head "no". Grandpa reached up to the tree and plucked a cherry from it. He opened it and inside was a big fat worm. He said to me, "a little extra meat never hurt anyone", and then he strolled off to the garage. I learned alot that day from my Grandpa and he had only said three sentences to me.
