In the years prior to the 1970s we had the whole world to ourselves - what I mean is the world as a frontier, devoid of supermarkets, delis, theme parks and the like. What bread and pastries we ate were baked at home by an all-around mom. Meat was from a freshly butchered cow on a meadow just next to the house. Games and toys were derived from discarded cans and boxes constructed with ingenuity and skill acquired from the regular use of garden and carpentry tools.
Neighbors? They treated us like their kids even if we had their poultry and garden all mapped out and knew when a particular fruit was just at the verge of ripening.
Friends? Yeah we treated them like siblings. Their dining table and pantry was ours too.
One particular buddy who was about my age, but was at a different level in school could be considered a friend-closer-than-a-brother. Maybe it was because I didn't have a male sibling or we had the same bottomless stomach or our level of hyperactivity shared the same frequency.
Gershon and I had an inherent GPS app long before google and the satellite was invented. We knew the exact location where the paitan fish would bite our homemade hooks, the wild ducks could be caught by hand amid the flowering rice paddies, when the bread at the cafeteria was out of the oven and cooling on a table, and like previously mentioned, where the sweetest fruits were just right for eating.
One hungry afternoon Gershon met me as I exited from class and said that today was the day that a large jackfruit would be at its sweetest point before harvest. The particular tree was at the fringe of the orchard, smack behind the house of the agriculture big boss and an attempt to snatch it would be quite tricky. One thing that was at our advantage was the tall grass around the trees that afforded some concealment. In no time the huge tasty fruit was on the ground with two hungry blokes busily attacking it. Halfway through I noticed Gershon looking some distance behind me while the color from his face drained to a deadly pale hue. Before I could manage to turn my head he held up his hand with some jackfruit in it and said with an unsteady voice, "let's eat sir, it's so tasty!"
I almost choked on the jackfruit, but managed a wry smile to appear less guilty. Dr. Era didn't see the need to scold us since we looked so remorseful and repentant and he just said that we could finish the fruit, but this should be the last of our forage into his territory.
We learned our lesson right and the next time we were more careful. LOL
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