Here is one more quick tale of the mischievous boys at Fair Oaks Elementary School!
It was early in my first year teaching, and an apple for the teacher might not have been unexpected. But it was not an apple. It was an orange. It appeared on my desk as if by magic. Since no one claimed responsibility for it, I waved my thanks in the general direction of the class. I left it there until the end of the day before I decided to eat it. It was a good orange. Juicy. Very sweet, as if tree-ripened. I enjoyed it. And then it slipped my mind, and I didn’t think any more about it until last year when I was getting ready to publish The Pick & Stick Kids go to School.
The next day, there was another orange on my desk. Same mysterious appearance. Well, it was puzzling, but not upsetting, like maybe a rat that suddenly appeared on one’s shoulder might be. I left it on my desk for the rest of the day again, beginning to look forward to this tasty, unexpected treat. It did not disappoint!
Fair Oaks was a small, sububan California elementary school within view of the Sierra Nevada. Many students walked to school through neighborhoods where people’s yards were overflowing with orange, lime, lemon and other fruit trees. These trees had been in bloom not too long ago, and the fragrance wafted through the entire neighborhood. I remember thinking how wonderful that the aroma, so delightful, wasn’t owned by a single person, but was available for everyone to enjoy.
Being from New England, the first time I saw an orange growing in a tree, it was quite an experience. I jumped out of the car and rushed right into that person's front yard to examine it first-hand! I was still coming to terms with food that spontaneously appeared in a tree, or on a desk, it seemed, in this case.
So on the third day when yet another orange appeared, the plot was thickening. Then, there came a knock on the classroom door. It was the principal, and he had a small group of sheepish-looking boys in tow. They were pulling a red wagon with a few remaining oranges rolling around in the bottom of it. Aha! Mystery solved!
A walk to school through a fruit-filled neighborhood with a little red wagon and a few friends to help you gather in nature’s bounty, even it it happened to have grown on your next-door-neighbor’s tree! It’s not always clear what belongs to whom when you’re 9 years old!
TIP:
If you have read The Pick & Stick Kids Go to School, you might be wondering how an orange suddenly appears out of thin air in the queen’s hand! Mystery solved!
The last time I saw the boys and their red wagon was in June of 1971. I wonder if, when they grew up, they went into the fruit distribution business!
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