Peaches

What is it about food that reminds of us people? The boy in my profile picture simply adores lemons. If he sees a fresh lemon, he enthusiastically recites to anyone nearby his recipe for making fresh lemonade. I can't look at lemon without recalling his unbridled excitement at the mere thought of homemade lemonade.

Every summer, my happiness is complete when those marvelous white peaches appear in the store. In a few weeks, if we haven't had a late frost, the local peaches will be everywhere: in roadside stands, at the farmers markets and best of all at the orchards where you can buy unusual varieties which you can't find in the stores. And of course, there are fresh peach pies to enjoy as well the joy of gnoshing on a juicy peach anytime I want.

A few years ago I met a little boy who had never eaten a fresh peach. At 8 years of age, he had never once tasted one even though he lived not far from several good peach orchards. His sister had never eaten a fresh peach, neither had his Mom. One day someone brought a huge box of peaches in for my training analyst. We were all told to help ourselves. This kid took one peach, sunk his teeth into it, and it was love at first bite.

A few weeks later he came running into the building. He had a song we just had to hear. At that moment, nothing was more important than playing that song for us. He could barely contain his excitement as he slipped a cassette tape into the player. He played the peach song for us. We chuckled at the song. We chuckled over its perfect lyrics. But mostly we chuckled at the sheer delight of a little guy who had been introduced to something wonderful. I wonder if he thinks of us when he eats a peach. I suspect he does.