by Chris Tilley

Created on: December 01, 2009   Last Updated: December 03, 2009

"What are we doing today, Dad," I called having just rolled over out of bed to the knock at my door. Dad was there, overalls, and flannel shirt. "Gardening, my boy," was his reply.

We spent all day getting ready. Preparing the soil. Digging the holes for these eight peach trees to go into for the next summer's yield. I was hungry now and even felt like having a peach or two.

"No peaches for you," he said with a bit of humor to his voice.

Finally, with the time to plant them into the earth drug itself out of the corner it was hiding in under a rock, the trees went in smooth. But I still wanted the fruits of my labor early. With the sun setting I remembered Mom always had a knack for predicting these things. So, I rushed into the kitchen, through the screen door, nearly running into it closed. And I looked into the freezer to see if there were a selection of peaches and cream ice cream. Nope, and was I peeved.

Again disappearing, when I finally returned dad sat on the couch with a bowl in his hands. Lifting the spoon to his mouth and chomping deliciously into a peach and milky white ice cream scoop he just smiled. "One thing I have to teach you my boy is that you need to elarn when to ask for something." And that was how planting peach trees cost me five dollars and forty-nine cents on ice cream already in the other freezer. I think the old man hid it on me to prove a point. That would just be a gardener's wisdom for you.

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