45+ years ago

In the last half of the 1950s, my family lived on Pippin Street in Sunnyvale California. (The person who owns the house today is the person who bought the house from us. It needs a roof job.)

I have many fond memories of the house and my small circle of friends. Today, though, the memory that is crowding my consciousness is of the two black plum trees in the backyard.

It was a standard tract house of the period. Nice, but not much by the standards of today. The backyard was small but behind us was walnut orchard. Where our tract was built, it was a plum orchard so the builder left plum trees to landscape the backyard of many houses. This meant it was not possible to give the plums away. :)

It also meant that, even though it was new construction, the plum trees were mature, fruit bearing trees. I remember those plums. A few days ago, we received our Harry and David fruit and it was plums. Black plums. I haven't eaten a black plum in decades. I was instantly transported to my childhood.

Yesterday, I bought some more at the grocery.

Change

You wanna get a crowd boiling mad? Create some meaningless, but obvious, change in the day to day routine of community life. That's all it takes.

The conversations will start out sounding a bit annoyed and by the time it's over, someone might get lynched.

It also seems that big changes are more easily handled by communities than small ones.

It has long been established that groups and even most individuals will resist change, it is an interesting characteristic to watch in others and even in one's self.