Summer Fading, 1948
Photo: Randy Robertson
Labeled for non-commercial reuse
The leaves of my pepper tree tickle me as the gnarly bark scrapes the back of my legs. I take a leave and crush it, inhaling the pungent fragrance evokes a sense comfort in me. Red berries, peppercorns, hang in clusters. What better place for a 5 year old to consider all those important things that occupy her life.
Moments later, Mama beckons to me from the back door. I scurry down the tree with conflicting feelings of regret and anticipation and slam the screen door behind me. “Take your sweater, Vicki, it will be cool when you come home.” I grab it off the dining room chair and sprint down the hill, across the dirt road to Stewie’s house where, on his 12” black and white TV, Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent has just joined his buddies.
setting summer sun
slips gently behind our hill
peace-filled memory
Happy to have Lady Nyo hosting this week for dVerse Haibun. Please join us.
Victoria C. Slotto, Author 
Very physical description of your surrounding, loved it. And the novelty of television!
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I have so different memories from the early TV-shows (mine where in the 60s and Swedish)… but I really love how there were different temptations to lure you… but at the end of the day it was sleep. Days where simpler then
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Oh! I LOVED Kukla Fran and Ollie…..Especially Ollie! This brought so many memories flooding back, Victoria. We used to meanly tease my pilot father (WWII) by singing “Albert, the Air Sick Eagle”…we were so mean little kids. I remember climbing a ‘trick tree’. Funny that tree was quite a challenge then. I went back ‘home’ to sneak a visit on the new yuppies property…and the trick tree hadn’t grown in the 50 plus years! Loved this gentle haibun, Victoria. These haibun are creating a net of universality…and that is all to the good!
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Sweet memories of an innocent time and your closing haiku carries that peaceful energy beautifully :o)
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Your writing creates a sense of peace and a reminder of the joy of tree climbing!
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So peppercorns grow on trees big enough for a child to climb?
It is amazing what comes back to one’s mind when one is prompted to think about one’s childhood.
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The trees have lots of branches and ours was next to a wall I could climb up and over into the branches.
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I like that you write it in present tense. It makes it more real in my opinion, as if we are in the memory there for a second. I like how you give it fragrance and texture in the crushing of that plant. Ha, I am unfamiliar with the show, but I have my own memories as well. Good to see you friend.
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Cecil wa a character from Kukla, Fran and Ollie which you may have heard of (I think).
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My memory of Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent was just this minute dislodged as soon as I read this, Victoria! I love your snippet of life that so fully describes a five year old’s ideas of fun and exploration of the world around her. Very sweet.
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Climbing up a pepper tree to contemplate life at the tender age of 5. You’re a writer. Lovely memory and beautiful haiku – the setting sun finishing it off.
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I love the scents of your words and I recall watching TV then in black and white ~ I hated it when my mom calls me to go home already ~ Those were the days, smiles ~ Indeed a peace-filled memory ~
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