Pass the salad, please

I visited my daughter on Sunday (mostly to drop off some things for the kids) and we wound up walking around her yard looking at the flowers blooming, herbs growing, etc. I'm guessing that's her Italian side!

Visiting the home of a full-blooded Italian comes with the requisite walk around the yard and garden. Not sure why, but it's always the first event in any visit. Maybe that was just my family because they all grew up in downtown Chicago and were just so darned happy to even HAVE a yard or garden!

When I was 11, we lived next door to my Aunt Fanny (real name Phyllis) and her son Patty Boy. My family was big on nicknames - "Patty Boy" is now 66 and bald, but he's still Patty Boy. Anyway, my Aunt was showing us around her yard and we got to her prized peach tree. Full of beautiful peaches. She pulled one off to show us and there was a hole in it! So she pulled another one - another hole!! She soon realized that most of the peaches had holes in them, and, upon further inspection, had BB's in the holes! Turns our her darling son was trying to shoot birds in the trees and kept missing. All he could hit were the peaches! Whoa, you do not want to see my Aunt Fanny mad!!

A few years later, my grandfather (Papa Jim) was showing his friend, John, around the house and the garden. John was a detective with the Tucson Police Department. They looked at the orange trees, the pomegranate bush, the fava beans - and they finally got to the lettuce patch. Now, my grandparents lived about one block from the University of Arizona which, at that time, was full of "damn hippies" as they called them. Back to the lettuce. John looked at the patch and said, "Jim, you have marijuana growing in with the lettuce!!" Papa Jim had no idea what marijuana was so John proceeded to explain it to him. Seems the "damn hippies" were planting pot in the gardens of all the homes in the area and then coming back in the dark of night to harvest! John and my grandfather pulled it all out and threw it away. But it did enlighten us as to why my grandmother was suddenly craving salads!!