By Linda Lee Widrig (12/10/1945)
Many years ago, my Mom took us all "apple taking" out on the peninsula. When she went stealing apples, she made sure she did it on a large scale. She took at least three or four bushel baskets to put them in. She also took as many kids as she could! So we all piled into my brother Lewis's car which was a '60 olds. That car was just like a big boat with a trunk so big I think we could have put a very small compact car in it.
She drove over town to pick up my cousins Maxine, Marilyn and Dick. The car was full of kids who were having a ball. My sister and I and my brother Bill were all in the front. My brother Lewis was in the Navy and in Viet Nam at that time so he missed out on the fun but I remember writing him about it.
Mom drove way out on the peninsula and it was getting dark. We must of driven 18 miles to a dirt road of the main drag. Mom shut off the lights to the car and we creeped back into the orchard to have some fun. She told us all to be as quiet as possible and not to pick too many apples off any tree but to go from one to the other. We had quite a variety to choose from.
My brother Bill and my cousin Dick went out in the orchard with a flashlight and no one paid much attention to which way they went. Mom called out to them quietly a couple times and got no answer. I was picking apples like crazy and my cousins Maxine and Marilyn were right beside me picking and giggling like two little hens.
All of a sudden we had a flashlight shining on us and a loud male voice shouting, "What's going on here?" I dropped to the ground with an apple I had just bitten in my mouth and froze! I looked just like a pig ready to be roasted in a pit. I could hear my mother say," Bill!- Dick! cut that crap out!" We looked in the direction of mom's voice and she was hiding behind the car. Maxine, Marilyn and I broke up laughing and so did everyone else after they got over being scared to death.
That was fun but mother had something else in store for us. We went into town and drove right down Front street. Two guys pulled up besides us at a stop light and revved up their engine. When the light changed, Mom hit the gas and away we went. She beat them to the next light and they did the same thing again. The light changed, wheels screamed and smoked rolled out the back of that old car. She shut 'em down just like in one of the beach boy songs. We thought that was real cool! Never mind that she had stolen apples in the trunk and could get a ticket for drag racing!
We took our stolen treasure to my Uncle Allen's house and left off my cousins and a bushel there, also to my Aunt Lilly's and left her some too. The rest of the apples we shared with the neighbors who needed some food at that time. My Mom was and still is a fun gal and you just never know what you're going to get into when you go for a ride with her! She has mellowed some but she still has that twinkle in her eye when we talk about going out "apple taking."
Persons mentioned in this story
Story submitted 5/1/97