Scrumping
They say that stolen fruit is always tastier. I can confirm that is true.
As a young lad I used to go scrumping and it was always delicious. We had two main places to scrump. The first place was with my friend Dave. He had a peach tree in his garden that was always laden with the most enormous, juicy peaches. It was one of those trees that had been trained to go up walls and covered the whole wall of the garage. It was jealously guarded by Dave’s mother. So we had to use intrigue. As she worked in her kitchen a lot of the time she had a clear view of the peaches. We used to sneak along the side of the house, climb up onto the roof of the garage and crawl across the corrugated asbestos. We were only small and didn’t weigh much so we didn’t fall through. When we’d reached the edge of the garage we’d reach an arm over and grab a big, juicy peach. Then we’d retreat to the other side to devour it. I have never tasted peaches as succulent and delicious as those stolen gems. By the end of the season the roof of the garage was littered with peach stones from our clandestine operations.
I can still remember the flavour of those peaches. They don’t make them like that anymore!
The second fruit we scrumped was apples.
We had to go further afield for that. There was this farmer who had an orchard. We used to cycle there and throw our bicycles into the long grass while we pillaged the orchard.
The only trouble was that the farmer seemed to take a dim view of the whole enterprise. To start with he had the whole orchard surrounded with a high wall topped with shards of glass. Secondly he would tour the orchard with his dog. It was reputed to be exceedingly vicious.
None of this deterred us. It was a challenged.
We went equipped with thick hessian sacks. We’d throw these over the glass and then boost one of us up on the wall. If the coast was clear he’d help the others across. We’d hide the hessian sacks the other side and make a bee-line for the trees. We’d scamper up into the upper branches and begin plucking the fruit of our labour. We felt safe up high in the foliage. If the farmer came by with his dog we remained as quiet as mice and watched them from on high.
Those apples were the best apples I had ever tasted. My mum bought apples but they sat in the bowl uneaten. But these ones you could eat your weight of.
The farmer spoilt it all.
He put a box of apples outside with a sign saying ‘Help Yourself’. It took all the fun out of it. We stopped going.
If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.
Or a book of poetry and comment:
Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindle
My other books are here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1457515636&sr=1-2-ent