Remembrance of Peaches Past
Story and illustration by Gary Handman
My maternal grandfather, Harry, and his sisters, Hannah and Rose, were born on a small farm outside of Nashville, Tennessee (a fact that has always mystified me, given that my great-grandparents were urban Jews from Austria and Romania). The family migrated to Los Angeles in the early 1900s, but Harry, Hannah, and Rose never lost their farmers’ supernaturally green thumbs. My grandfather grew amazing sweet corn in his small East L.A. backyard, using as fertilizer the head and guts of fish he frequently caught in Santa Monica Bay. His sisters grew glorious roses and tended a small fruit tree arbor in the big backyard of the house they shared in North Hollywood. When my parents moved into their first house in West L.A. in the early 1950s, Hannah and Rose gave them a bare-root Elberta peach sapling from their garden as a housewarming gift. The fruit that tree eventually bore was mind-expanding, as I recall—the Holy Grail of peachdom. I’ve subsequently spent decades searching for an equal to the peaches of Slauson Avenue. Now, I admit that I am a relative latecomer to farmers’ markets. In the past few years, however, I’ve mended my ways. We live a short walk from the cute little Thursday market in North Berkeley. I’ve become hooked on Mr. Morell’s toothsome Tordu baguettes. I love the roast chicken truck, with its statue of a giant roasted bird perched on top. I always swing by Donna’s tamale stand for a free sample and to buy lunch. And the peaches! In summer, Kashiwase Farms and Blossom Bluff Orchards send me into stone-fruit raptures. While I’m not sure any fruit can match the mythical peaches of my Hannah-and-Rose youth, I’m lucky to live in a region where I can come pretty damn close. ♦
Gary Handman is an occasional freelance illustrator and cartoonist whose work has appeared in a strangely diverse gaggle of books and journals. He once daylighted as the film and video librarian of the UC Berkeley library. He has lived in Berkeley with his wife, Pam, for ages. Reach Gary at handman(at)berkeley.edu.
