Teaching Valuable Life Lessons

Something my Grandma taught me from a very young age was the value of things. And in that , was the value of money. Grandma had this amazing way of teaching valuable life lessons. She knew I probably wouldn't listen if she just explained it. I was a fairly hyper active child. So instead, she would just go about her business in a way that would make you ask questions. One of those life lessons she taught me about was an old scraggly wild apple tree growing next to the drive way. By all rights it should have been cut down. It was in the way when the driveway was plowed, a pain to mow around, and it didn't add much in looks concerning her lawn, which she was particular about. But she wouldn't hear of it. Nope, not her. She loved that apple tree. She would marvel at the fruit blossoms. Strong storms would usually shred a few branches off. One time, it's trunk was split by lightening. But it didn't come down. Somehow she got grandpa to chain the trunk back together. 

Homemade Apple Pie

It would always produce these small often misshaped apples and that's what she was waiting for. She would take me out to pick them and she swore they were the best apples in the whole wide world. She said it, so I believed it. We would bake homemade apple pie and make fresh apple butter. The whole time shes teaching me how. When I got old enough to do it on my own and it was hard for her, I would shake the tree, and she would supervise while I did it for her. 😊

Finally when she was about 90 years young, I had taken her to the doctor and my cousin cut it down. She was heartbroken when we came home. One of the first times I ever saw her actually cry.

I got her in the house and asked her why that particular tree had meant so much to her? 

She said because when there wasn't much during The Great Depression, that single fruit tree always provided, no matter how scraggly it was. It always gave her hope that things would be okay. There were so many memories of me picking apple blossoms, climbing it, and being in the kitchen with her. Then when I grew up and took over the apple projects, she knew I loved it as much as she did. But the main reason was because it grew there on it's own and provided her with free apples every year. 

Scraggly or not it had tremendous value. NEVER overlook the value of things that you can use! Why spend the money on something you already have?

That's when I really understood why she saved string that the meat was wrapped with, the wax paper inside cereal boxes, used rubber bands, etc. It was money she could save, yet still have what she needed. Her life during The Great Depression must have been so very hard and unimaginable to most people who didn't personally live through it.

Later that year, I planted her a new apple tree as close as we could to the old one. She was so excited about it. But not half as excited as she was when she called me and demanded I come right now! When I got there she was standing in her drive way with a huge grin on her face. That wild apple tree had sent up a new shoot from the sawed off trunk. I still think about that tree of hers and how she is still teaching valuable lessons to me, even now to this day. 🍎