The Mulberry Tree and Lemon Drops

Yesterday someone offered me a lemon drop. It took me back to a time in my youth when it was summer with my cousin Julie spending the whole summer with my Aunt Sadie. Aunt Sadie had a huge Mulberry Tree beside her huge garden. It was a wonderful tree that provided a lot of shade. Underneath the Mulberry Tree was a dilapidated, old wooden table about 6 feet long. Julie and I spent several summers under that Mulberry Tree concocting all kinds of goodies. You see, that table and Mulberry Tree was our summer kitchen. Aunt Sadie and my mom would give us old pots, pans, and dishes. We'd use them to create magnificent mud pies. We had the best black dirt to use from the garden which was only a couple of feet away. Buckets of water would be drawn for mixtures and to wash dishes. We had so much fun mixing pies, cakes, and treats of all sorts with that fabulous, thick, gooey mud. We'd decorate them with rocks, flowers, and mulberries. Sometimes we would "sneak" eggs from home to add to the mix or "borrow" goodies from the garden to garnish. Adding the eggs was the most fun. It made that mud turn to pure goo. After all the mixing and decorating, we'd put them in the sun to "bake".

When our goodies were done, we'd pop them out of the pans onto a special dish. Aunt Sadie would often sit down for a spell and pretend to have lunch or dinner with us. My dad would also show up to see what we were baking. Uncle Ralph refused to take part. We always asked getting a big hoot out of his predicted response, "nah, why in the hell would I want to eat that?" Grinning like a crazy monkey the whole time he said it. (He was just created to torment those he loved, and we knew it.) We'd laugh and go on cooking.

The reason why the lemon drop from yesterday took me back to these great memories was because Julie brought a bag of lemon drops to the kitchen one day. She thought they would be great to use with our baking. Imagine the excitement of being able to decorate with real lemon drops. Julie, the most adventurous cousin I know, decided she would try a lemon drop dropped in mud. No eggs that day. Just black dirt and water. Mixed with who only knows what else. Julie took that first mud covered lemon drop and declared, "it's good try it!" Okay. I did. It was not good. But I got a kick out of Julie continuing to eat several, maybe even numerous mud covered lemon drops that afternoon. Probably the more I laughed the more she ate. Aunt Sadie just about pooped a brick house when she realized what Julie was doing. She took the lemon drops and hid them. I really don't remember Julie ingesting anymore mud after that either.