Bush League

My aunt Violet Miner Bottomley and Uncle Charles had a large garden and several fruit trees on their property in Mill Run, Pennsylvania The garden had raised beds and when my family visited there were certain rules for us kids. We couldn’t go into the garden and could only eat apples that had fallen to the ground. My favorite tasting was the sweet and juicy Grimes Golden apples. We weren’t allowed to “encourage” an apple to fall.

Aunt Violet had several golden currant bushes at the perimeter of her yard. They were also off limits, but often the allure of their tangy flavor often me to err. I’d eat only a handful of two as I hunkered down concealed among the leaves as we played “Hide & Seek” with the other cousins. Violet wanted a good harvest when she made currant jelly.

Uncle Charles also had a Concord grape arbor. The rules about eating the grapes were less stringent than with the apples or the currants. We could eat the grapes as long as we didn’t waste them.

The other story about bushes that comes to mind happened at Granddad and Grandma Miner’s house. Grandma Rebecca Miner had a large lilac bush at one side of her house. The bush had a few trunks that were about 4 inches in diameter and rose nearly 12 feet high. They were surrounded by a multitude of slender shoots. When cousins congregated for holidays It made the perfect place of concealment as we played “Hide & Seek.”

Gram loved her lilacs and we knew it was off limits, but that didn’t stop me. I entered the maze of saplings. I knew if someone parted the leaves, I’d be discovered easily, so I climbed the thick trunk and edged out on a nearly horizontal branch where I wouldn’t be seen. It was a great place to hide…until my foot slipped and I fell. I didn’t fall too far, my heel caught in the crotch of a branch and like a bat, I hung upside down unable to free myself.

I yelled for someone to get help. My granddad Ray responded. Pushing his way into the maze of the lilac bush, he stopped when he came face to face to face with me, although mine was upside down. In his usual quiet manner, he said, “You know you shouldn’t be in Grandma’s lilac bush. I have half a notion to leave you there.”