Yesterday When I Was Young

I took the kids to the Plymouth Farmer’s Market on Thursday. I take them to all the best theme parks.
To my astonishment one of the vendors was selling strawberry tomatoes. I bought two pints and seemed to be the only person there who knew what they were. The stand was wisely giving out free samples to attract attention.
Strawberry tomatoes are a perfect anecdote for a week that I’ve spent navel gazing my own history between ages 16 and 21, because strawberry tomatoes were in my life even before then. My grandmother grew them in her garden. She only had a few plants; they grew wild and haphazard on the edges of her more cultivated rows. I would pick them individually and eat them immediately, peeling back their little dried jackets, which made them look like Chinese lanterns. My grandmother’s garden seemed enormous to me when I was little. I found out later, when my cousin sold the property, that the whole estate: house, garden, and all, was only .66 acres.
I would spend Sunday afternoons roaming through the garden while my mother visited with my grandmother after church. It seemed as if they were inside the house for hours; probably it was more like 15 minutes.

Song: Yesterday, When I Was Young * artist: Shirley Bassey