Fresh Milk and Talasha and a Garden Full of Sweet Peas

Have you ever eaten fresh sweet peas straight from the garden? I don't mean cooked. I mean like candy. You snap off the pod, and then you pry it open and let the peas fall into your hand like a handful of m&m's from the bag. And then you pop 'em all (like 5) into your mouth at once. And they are SO YUMMY, that you just want to have some more!

When we lived in Michigan, one of the things my parents got to dig their interests into was gardening. Over the time that we were there, we had lettuce (in garbage bags to give away- there was so much of it) and green beens and corn and ... we planted a lot of stuff.

It was July 4, 1982 or 1983 or maybe 1984. I was very much looking forward to spending the evening with some neighborhood friends who invited me to watch fireworks with them. I don't know if i had ever really done the fireworks thing before. We had done the sparklers thing and all, but i was very excited about real fire works.

Well, my mom was at work, and sometime during the day, my dad decided that he was going to go out to his cousin's farm and get some milk. AND he decided that he would trust me to stay home by myself while he was gone since it wouldn't be very long.

Dad left, and it wasn't very long before Talasha was over, and she and i were playing in my back yard. And i don't remember whose idea it was, but we decided to try some of the sweet peas. mmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM they were good! And perfectly ripe for harvesting. We enjoyed them so much, that we decided to have some more. And then we wanted some more. I remember at some point, knowing that we'd done more than sample the peas. And i DO remember whose idea it was to keep eating them, and Talashia was apparently very convincing because we kept eating more peas....and more peas.....and more peas. And they were still really good! Yummmy!

Soon, my dad's car pulled up - in perfect view of the garden of course - and we got caught. My cohort Talashia disappeared pretty quickly - across the street and down two doors and in her room like nothing ever happened. And there i was to wait while my dad surveyed the damage...which must've been substantial...because i was INNN TROUBLE!

I don't remember any yelling or anger, but i do remember that i was grounded, which meant no fire works on the 4th of July AND i got a spankin'. I didn't get spankings very often, and this is the last one i remember. My dad used a paint stirring stick, which he named "the rod." I didn't like the rod too much. It stung!!! And it stung special on this day. I got my spanking, and i was grounded to my room while everyone else watched fireworks.

Sometime after it started getting dark, and we could hear the sound of fireworks nearby, my parents started feeling my punishment, and i got to play in the back yard with consolation sparklers in my night gown. And we didn't have anything to light them with, so my dad had to light them on the burners on the stove and then run them outside really really fast.

Pretty cool memory for me.

Oh, and if i'm not mixing up my memories, Dad made a phone call across the street to Talashia's mom sometime that afternoon. We could hear the sound of Talashia's mom's voice all the way from our house, yelling, "Talashia!"

I did not suffer alone.

And i'm pretty sure Talashia didn't get consolation sparklers either. =)