What It Was, Was a Peach Tree (standard:humor, 906 words)
Author: Godspenman	Added: Aug 16 2020	Views/Reads: 1068/767	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
If you know what you're doing, do it to God's glory, and don't let men distract you.

For some reason, this week, I had been thinking of my maternal
grandfather. I was named after him, and therefore we had a connection. 

I was thinking about him because this month I turned the same age as he
was when he passed. I hope there's no connection there. 

As a young boy, I would spend a month, every summer at my grandparents.
They lived up in the mountains of Pennsylvania in a long valley. My 
grandfather was a farmer, and his primary income was his dairy cows. He 
taught me how to milk cows, and he did it the old-fashioned, hands-on 
way. 

My grandfather and grandmother were rather opposite. My grandfather was
rather quiet and didn't talk very much. On the other hand, my 
grandmother never had an unexpressed thought. I guess she made up for 
my grandfather's silence. 

But my grandfather was quite different, a very quiet individual. I
remember one afternoon sitting on the front porch with his brother, 
Dan. The three of us sat there, and the conversation went something 
like this. 

Grandfather, “Sure is a nice day.” 

After a few minutes, Dan said, "Sure is." 

That was the conversation for the whole afternoon. That's how my
grandfather was. 

As a farmer up in the mountains of Pennsylvania, he was very adept at
growing things. 

One day he came home and in his truck were four little bushes. At least
they looked like bushes. I helped him plant them on the left side of 
the driveway. I never saw my grandfather so happy in all his life. 
Although he was smiling he wasn't talking. 

I asked my grandfather what we were planting, and he simply said, "Peach
trees." 

The next day a friend of my grandfather stopped in and saw the “bushes”
along the driveway. 

“Hey, Jim,” the friend said, “what's that there that you planted?” 

Grandfather just looked and said, “Peach trees.” 

The friend laughed and looked at my grandfather and said, “We don't grow
peach trees here. And they don't even look like a peach tree.” And he 
continued laughing. 

It wasn't long before everybody in the valley was making fun of his
"peach trees." In fact, the traffic in front of my grandparent's house 
increased and slowed as they came by, and everybody looked out their 
window and pointed at those infamous peach trees. 

I don't think anybody had ever grown peach trees in that area before.
Everybody thought that peach trees were a southern fruit and no 
respectable Pennsylvania farmer, would ever grow one. 

The rumor developed that they were not, but my grandfather was simply
trying to fool everybody. After all, he was like that. 

A year later, I was back at my grandparents during the summer, and
several people would stop, look at those peach trees and asked my 
grandfather, "Jim, where are those peaches?" Then they would laugh at 
him and drive on. Nobody believed any peaches would grow on those 
trees. After all, they looked like small bushes. 

When I would go home after my summer visit, I usually forgot about those
peach trees. But then I would go back the next summer for a month and 
get all caught up on the peach tree story. 

It became one of the stories of the valley because everybody thought it
was a ruse. No peaches this year on those peach trees. Which made 


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