116 Those Old Cherry Picking Days

Oh for those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer those days of soda and pretzels and beer, except that I am a teetotaler, but I will never forget those summer days up at Bill’s place and picking cherries in Bill’s cherry orchard. We never got a lot of cherries picked but they sure tasted good. I guess that answers a lot of questions, the important one being why so few cherries in the bucket and so little money, but you gotta love those cherries. I guess I should speak for my self, as I’m sure Sandy has a different story.

I never spent much time in Bill’s orchard with Sandy and the kids except on the weekends because of my work. Sandy and the kids however lived for July and cherry season so they could spend a few weeks in Bill’s orchard each year picking cherries and having a great time.

You might think that the greatest danger to cherry picking would be maybe falling out of the cherry tree and breaking an arm or a leg, but one day something far scarier came slithering into the cherry orchard and had everyone up a tree, cherry tree that is. It was a big old rattler, and if you weren’t already in a tree you sure headed for one. It wasn’t long however before Bill came over and dispatched it forthwith and things quieted down, but the tranquility of the orchard was never quite the same after that as everyone now had thoughts of a rattler behind every clump of grass.

Cherry picking was a lot of fun and a neat way to add some variety to the summer but it was also a great way to make a few extra dollars to supplement the family income. From the time the cherries were in season ending with tomatoes in the fall I would be hauling fruit down from Keremeos to sell out of our garage. By now the fun had somehow left and it was just plane work, but with three kids in private school and long trips to visit family, we had no trouble spending the extra money.

Those days are now gone but the memories of the times spent in Keremeos picking cherries in Bill’s orchard will always remain in our memory and are what give life it’s meaning and pleasure.