Dried figs

I realize it is Wednesday of this week and nothing has been written by me for my loyal fans to read. I was looking at my Facebook page and saw that Larry Patten posted a picture of his dad holding him when he was a child and reading to him. This brought the moment of a tear to my tear ducts, though the tear didn't expose itself to my cheek, for it brings me to remembering my dad, again, and all of our dads.

I realize, too, that not everyone has a good relationship with their father. One person who will read this will know of who I refer, and that is too bad, but not for the child in this situation but for the father. Men just can't let go sometimes and they have to believe that WHAT they believe is the best and only way to go. Men can't let it go! I learned in the first rehab program I was in (i did go to two) that if I was holding a grudge that I should let it go. I can't remember if at the time I was holding any grudges, but I remember one co-patient who said on the way out of the program for that night "I've got to laugh at myself for I have been holding a grudge against someone who has been dead for three years!" Let it go!

I know that this friend of mine wishes things were different with his/her father, but dad just can't get it right, so they don't communicate. I can't imagine what it would have been like to not communicate with my father. Dad was pretty good at communicating with me, especially after he retired.

Like Larry who's father read to him, my father read to me, too. He also read to our friend Jill when Jill was little. I remember seeing Jill on his lap while he read to her, as he was good at doing this kind of thing. Dad was a good holder. He had a big enough lap and a big enough stomach to use as a pillow. He was always comfortable to be around.

On my desk I have dried black figs. I have four left, having just eaten three of them. I always liked dried figs. When I was a kid we would go to the fig orchard that was down the street (the trees long ago were torn out for - guess what - housing! Go figure!) and pick up the figs that had fallen on the ground and dried up. Yes, people, this is how figs are dried - they fall off the tree when too ripe to remain on the tree and lay on the ground until they are dry and then they are vacuumed up and sent off for cleaning where they are packaged in whatever manner they are packaged. We'd ride our bikes down and pick them off the ground, dust them off and eat them right there! Yes, it was stealing, but it was something that isn't done anymore because there aren't any fig trees around anymore in neighborhoods.

I grew up in the Fig Garden area of Fresno, so that meant fig trees. Ahhh, the good ol' days.

There is a place that mom and I go to in Fresno to buy dried figs, dried apricots, dried peaches, and other items throughout the year. It is a "stand" next to a house that is all built up around it with houses. Here you can buy what you want - on the honor system. Most of the time no one is around and ironically they can leave a box with money in it and people can go in and pay without having to worry about the money being stolen or the place closing down because of it. Amazing! Who would think that something like this could still exist?

I wonder how many people in my generation and the generations below were taught how to eat a fig? I know that people learned to party in the fig orchards - not me - i was too good to do anything like that - me, party? Please. I had to wait until my mid-30's to party.

So dad helped me to enjoy something that I wouldn't have been tempted to like otherwise. It's another thing that dad and I did together. Mom would get him a big bag of figs for Christmas and he would enjoy them - and he would say it helped in keeping him regular, too! Daddy was funny in that regard.

Getting back to what I say about our parents - at some point in time, if you haven't been getting along with mom and or dad, you need to ask yourself "would you rather love them of would you rather be right?" That question was posed to a family friend who's daughter was getting married and converting from Protestantism to Catholicism. Love ruled the day!

Today is Wednesday and I look out the window and see the world passing me by. I don't agree with everything that goes on out there - there will always be some disagreement. The day that I agree with everything is the day that I am laid to rest.

This is the View From Up Here!