M & J

M: "Oh my goodness! Jonathan, look! A bunch of baby strawberries!!!"
J: "Baby strawberries?"
M: "You should eat one. Strawberries are best when they're babies like that."
J: "Why don't they have any seeds yet?
M: "Because they're babies. They'll get their seeds when they grow up."

Cue my 3 year-old chubbster punk of a kid brother taking a bite out of a small, bright red product of our back-yard family garden. I knowingly smiled as he chewed and swallowed. Then toppled over in hysterical laughter as he began to turn bright red, while his wide eyes became wet with tears in the middle of his tiny little fat face. As he "sprinted" (*Read as waddled) towards the house screaming/crying for my mom, I realized that my 6-year old self might have failed to think all the way through my seemingly harmless prank. You see, we didn't grow strawberries in our garden. We grew carrots, pumpkins, zucchinis, tomatoes, bell peppers, and a cornucopia of other vegetables; but no strawberries. And as my furious mother came running out of the house with a teary-eyed Jonathan in tow, the pit in my stomach suddenly gave way to pure fear as I realized I had absolutely failed to think through my little joke.

MOM: "MORGAN!! Did you trick Jonathan into eating a jalepeno?!?!?!"
M: "Yes mom." Gulp...

I remembered that story driving to school this morning when Red Hot Chili Peppers' Higher Ground came blasting through my car speakers as took one look at the freeway and decided to bypass the 101 altogether. And though I was driving North on Price, I was mentally transported back to mine and Jon's backyard days. When we were kids, we practically saw the sun rise and set from our tree house and would spend entire summers living in our make believe world of the day. I guess that day, we were pretending that I was an evil older sister whose sole purpose in life was to make her adorable 3-year old brother's mouth burn with the intense pain of a freshly picked jalepeno pepper. Hey, I'm not saying I'm proud of that particular moment in my childhood, but I like to refer to those moments now as "character building." And obviously, the little punk turned out okay. With Jonathan completing his first week at West Point and me starting my last semester at ASU, those days seem further away than ever. So today, I was particularly grateful for my sweet little trip back in time to homegrown gardens and well deserved spankings.