Excerpt from Wild Plurn Jelly
Tracy Wilson
Wild Plum Jelly
By: Tracy Wilson
1 In the winter of 1976, when I was only four years old, my family moved into a modest home in a growing Greenville
neighborhood. Upon a slope on one side of the house, stood a dozen tree sprigs looking rather bald and barren By springtime.
however, the little trees began growing taller and bushier by the day. Upon exploring the hutside in mid-July, I noticed hundreds
of quarter-sized, pinkish orbs dangling, daring me to pick just one of course, I did.
2Plums? I questioned. Yes, plums. She reiterated. She explained that these were not the same as the deeply colored, voluptuous
kind I had seen in the market. These were a smaller and much sourer variety>
3 Knowing that they were safe, I ate enough that one afternoon to give me a stomachache that tasted two days. As the plums
became riper and sweeter, my grandma and I picked enough to fill two enormous buckets She taught me to make jely from the
tiny fruits which we could enjoy all winter long
4 Years later, I was driving down a long, winding highway when I noticed several wild plum trees lining the hedgerow had to
pull over. I picked a heaping handful As I sat there on the side of the highway, I based in the tartness of my childhood fruit and
in the sweetness of the memory of making jelly with the greatest woman I have ever known
What is the main idea of this selection?
A
moving to new places
the power of memories
drudgery in gardening
dangers of fruits