I love my kids too!

I know my mom loved me.  Oh she still does, but want to know how I knew that?  She made me these fabulous treats all the time.  Sometimes there is nothing better than a graham cracker frosted with chocolate frosting.  There was one summer many moons ago that my little sis, a few cousins, and a few neighbor friends all tried our hand at the migrant worker job.  We were cherry pickers.  It was a long summer of real early morning for not a lot of pay, but we had a blast just being together.

Every morning we would wake up at the crotch of dawn  and head down the road to the designated meeting site.  From there, a million little kids would load into the back of pickups and continue on our journey to the cherry orchard.  I’m sure there were some laws about children working or riding in the open bed of a truck, but we wanted to be cherry pickers.  I remember it being pitch black, but still haveing a ball.  We’d laugh, and joke and in the back of the truck as we drove down the highway.  Finally when we made it to the orchard we could see the trees were full of bright cherries.   I remember thinking, “This is awesome!  There are tons of cherries.  We’re going to be rich!”  But my excitement was quickly doused by a more experience cherry picker who told us newbies that the trees we were salivating over hadn’t been shaken yet.  What the………..we had to pick all the clinger-on-ers off the already shaken trees.  There were like 2 cherries left on each tree and we had to fight for them. After one long and not very fruitful day, my sister and cousin LeAnn decided they were tired of the sparse cherry trees and they ventured over to the un-shaken trees.  There buckets sure filled fast, but boy did they get in trouble.  “Cheater never prosper!!”  They learned quick the wrath of Mrs. Barker.

It was long days.  We’d pick from 3 am until midnight, only to have to walk home uphill in the snow 12 miles.  Just kidding.  We’d pick from 6 am until lunch and then we’d sit in the shade of a cherry tree and open our sack lunches.  Every day my mom would fix something delicious, but there would always be a baggie full of chocolate frosted graham crackers.  It was one of those rare and beautiful moments when food tasted so wonderful.   You know like when a tuna or even a Spam sandwich tastes like it came directly from heaven after freezing and skiing all day.  Those chocolate frosted delicacies never tasted so good as under the cherry trees.  My mom even packed extras after the first day.  The cousins ate them, and the friends ate them, and me and Hollie loved them.  They gave us the energy to finish our cherry picking.  So that’s how I know my muther loved me.  She frosted a million grahams to get us through our migrant worker stint.  I remember the day I got paid for picking 300 tons of cherries.  $31.36 to be exact.  I was proud and I saved that money forever.   OK, I actually spent it at the Little Store in Pleasant View buying penny candy, and yes it was worth it.  I’d probably have worked for free as long as my mom made me chocolate frosted grahams.

This is what happens when the red headed 10 year old gets your camera.  Notice it says, “J Loves L”.  You’ll have to imagine who that might be.  And it’s not James loves Lisa:)