< img src="http://www.gaffney-sc.com/images/peach.gif">Yesterday as I was driving home, I got to the railroad track, and sure enough, a train was blocking it, just sitting there. That’s not too unusual, and as the train was not moving, I just shut off the motor and decided to wait a few minutes. A flatbed truck pulled in behind me and a few other cars, but then one little truck drove down beside me to turn around, which I thought was strange. Why not just take the cut-through road?
But then he stopped and chatted with the man in the flatbed, all in Spanish. The flatbed driver hopped out and got two large baskets of peaches from the back of his truck.
Mmmmmmm….peaches! The railroad track goes through a neigborhood where people walk because they don’t have cars. So the flatbed soon attracted some passersby, and the driver made a few more sales. I decided I had waited long enough on the train which showed no signs of moving on, and did the three point turn.
AS I started back to the cut-through, I asked about the peaches…$12 for a big basket. When I rolled the window down for him to put them in the front seat, they smelled like warm sunshine and sweet tea. These were local, ripe peaches, not some fuzzy rocks shipped in from somewhere else. People have heard of Georgia peaches, but these are from the Gaffney area, immortalized by the Peachoid.
I cruised on home, hungrier by the minute with that wonderful smell beside me–it’s hard to eat a ripe peach and drive without getting sticky all over from that wonderful juice.
When I pulled into my neighborhood, I saw one of my dog-walking neighbors, a nice lady who does not speak any English. She looks Eastern European with her babuska and her little black ragmop dog. I stopped and handed her a couple of the peaches, that being as many as she could handle without a bag to put them in. She beamed and said thank you. Nothing like sunshine shared.
I am so glad that I didn’t get upset about having to wait for the train. If I had just sighed and taken the long way around, I wouldn’t have any of those glorious peaches. Roses aren’t the only thing to take time to stop and smell…and eat. I’l’l be up to my elbows in peach juice tonight as I peel and slice them for freezing. Yummmm.
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