Neighbors

As soon as the kiddos woke up on Saturday, we set out on bikes. Earlier that morning I saw a quick post by a neighbor in our block that she had pears available to pick. Aine and Benton were up for the task. When we arrived our neighbor and her husband took time to talk about their small orchard and chickens. Aine and Benton quickly set about picking a small boxful of Asian pears. Another neighbor boy came by and chatted with us while we all picked. While talking, we discovered he knows a few of our friends; they attend his school. After getting our fill of pears and looking at an almond plucked right from the tree, our neighbor showed the kiddos pottery shards left on her homesite by a previous collector. She even shared a few with us and suggested we take them to the Heard Museum nearby. This sharing led to tales about her home and how it fit into the neighborhood. Built before Arizona was even a state, she told stories of a bar owner, a still in the basement and bootleg alcohol on the back porch. Most of those tales were for me, but the kiddos loved hearing about how the house was on the edge of town one time surrounded by nothing.

Back home, we shared the tales we learned from our neighbor and the yummy pears. She invited us back for more fruit picking later in the year, and I think we may just do that.