You will know them by their fruits

Today, in the produce section of the local grocer, the price of cherries finally fell to just moderately atrocious.

At home, savouring my first cherries of the season (they’re probably my favourite fruit), the only thing that I found disappointing was that my brother wasn’t around to share them with me.

I don’t remember laughing very much when I was growing up, but I have delightfully silly memories of sitting around the kitchen table with Joe and a basketful of freshly-picked cherries. We would have contests to see who could put the most cherries in our mouths at once (I think the record was 24), which invariably resulted in ghoulish streams of deep red liquid dribbling and gushing down our chins. It was great fun making each other laugh, and we were rather heedless of the tummy upsets to come a couple of hours later. :) Sometimes we had friends sitting with us at that table, but Joe’s tanned face (and his shock of tousled white-blond hair, already bleached by the early summer sun) is the only one I clearly remember.

As I was fondly reminiscing about this, I realized that I will always associate this particular fruit with my brother. And that there are other fruits I will always associate with different people:

Peaches – My mother. She used to spend hot days in the kitchen canning them. A LONG time ago.

Oranges – My dad. He used to eat oranges (like most of his lunches and snacks) standing at the kitchen counter. He probably still does. My co-worker Neno does the same thing in the company kitchenette, and it always reminds me of my dad.

Raspberries – My late Uncle John. He loved them so much, he grew an entire patch of raspberry bushes. He was so proud of them. When he and my Aunt Anne sold the house, the new owners got rid of the raspberry bushes pretty quickly. I think he and I would have agreed that that was a damned shame.

Gooseberries – My Aunt Marie. I have no idea why. Also my old black lab, Lucky, who would eat the berries right off the bush.

Blueberries – Jean, my mother’s best friend. I went blueberry picking with her and my mom a couple of times while in my twenties.

Apples – Also my mom. I don’t think she would appreciate it if I told you why.

Bananas – The old vice principal of the boys’ middle school where I taught English in South Korea. One day I was eating a banana in the teachers’ room and he came by, smiling, said something in Korean, which was translated to me as some kind of comment that Korean women don’t eat bananas in public. Dirty old man. It was around the time of the Monica Lewinski scandal, and most Korean men seemed to associate Western women with bold sexual behaviour.

So, am I the only one who has strong associations between people and food? :)