RED, WHITE, and BLUEberriesby Eva Pasco, author of "Underlying Notes"
 The Sixties were an idyllic time when you were more apt than
not to sit down to family dinner spread over a red and white checkered tablecloth, feasting
on a sumptuous repast of Southern fried chicken, corn on the cob, and mashed potatoes smothered in
giblet gravy followed by mom's homemade dessert--perchance, blueberry pie. Our Americana red, white,
and blue way of life couldn't have foreseen what was barreling down the two-lanes at
breakneck speed: microwaveable meals, SPF lotions, recycling, blood bourne pathogens, click it or ticket,
smoking ordinances, merlot-to-go, sports on steroids, voyeuristic reality shows, bottled water
for sale, precautionary latex gloves, the demise of Chrysler and GM...And the beat goes on.
One of my favorite nostalgic memories is that of finding my thrill on the Blueberry Hill
across the street from my childhood home. Before my sparsely settled neighborhood developed
into a suburb, a vast woodland across the way beckoned for blueberry picking. My mother
and I often set out for the woods with our empty buckets in gleeful anticipation
of the blueberry pies she would bake when we returned. Twigs snapped and leaves rustled under
our PF Flyers, one of the largest sneaker brands in Sixties America. Unmindful of sunburn, mosquito
bites, bee stings, poison ivy, or Lyme Disease carrying deer tics hitching a ride on our bare skin,
we ventured up an incline in the woods where bushes hunkered for the picking.
Those blueberry pies had to be the tastiest with just the right amount of sweetness, flaky
crust, and juiciness in every bite with no afterthoughts of processed sugar or saturated fats.
Most good things come to an end as did our treks up Blueberry Hill when construction of the house across
the street trampled and tampered with Mother Nature's bounty, save our hill which was no
longer public domain. Hurrah for the RED, WHITE, and BLUEberries along with so
many other traditions and pastimes Americans hold dear that do not entail an out-of-pocket
expense: picnics, parks, parades, and puttering.
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