Stolen Cherries!

Funny the things you remember…I think it is because the farmers’ markets are brimming with bushel baskets full of green corn and red potatoes and green and yellow and red peppers and scarlet tomatoes…and we haven’t considered the fuzzy peaches and blueberries and burgundy cherries.  Anyway, it’s that time of year when one of the most coveted sounds is that snap a mason jar makes when it seals, signaling rows upon rows of tall jars filled with the makings of winter’s dinners. 

 My Jim loves cherries, and they were finally within reason at the grocery store this week, so we had plain washed cherries for dessert last night – so good – and some kind of fun to watch the little pile of stems and seeds grow on our plates. 

 

Today as I turned the remaining peaches I bought last weekend (at 50 cents a pound) into peach cobbler, I noted the remaining few cherries and suddenly dropped back fifty years. My cousin worked at the Grant’s Department store in our town (some of you will remember that store but probably no one under 50), and since his family lived quite a distance away, he lived with us.

 

Now to the cherries…have you ever canned cherries?  It is a real chore to can cherries, what with pitting them – it takes hours if you have very many – and then the processing, and finally the stashing them for rare winter pies or cobblers. Cousin ... had been with us for several months when one Sunday afternoon my mother decided we deserved a real cherry pie.  Down into the darkness of the earthen cellar she went, returning in a few minutes, somewhat cobwebby, with the terrible news.  Someone had eaten all the cherries, eaten the jars empty and put the jars back on the shelf behind the tomatoes and green beans.

 You have to know that my little sister and I only descended the stairs into the basement under duress, so there was little doubt about who had crossed the thresh hold from welcome family member to outright traitor and thief.  I’m not so sure it was because the cherries were worth all that much money, but it was the betrayal, and the reality that Cousin ... could no longer be trusted.  I'm sure my mother would have given him some if he asked, but he didn't ask, not once.

 He went on to become successful in life, but for my family, that memory always haunted us at every family reunion.  It made me think today of what things I might have done or do now, that color my reputation, that cause people to look past whatever I might have accomplished or do, seeing it only through my failure. 

Today we will probably finish up the cherries, and enjoy a piece of peach cobbler, savoring the blessings of the harvest.  But I will pray today that God will help me to glorify Him in all that I do, that His image in my life will not be tarnished.