Fruit Trees : a conversation transcription
Aeja Monet
Popop and Aeja are in the kitchen talking about fruit trees in Florida, Georgia and New Jersey. Grandma occasionally drops in, but is going back and forth between the kitchen and her room. The tv is on the entire time, NCIS episode. Aeja is eating an orange, Popop is finishing his grapefruit.
-- Read aloud --
A E J A : I eat mangoes, but wait. You would just walk around the street and pick up fruit?
P O P O P : Yeauh, mangows, oranges, lemons. Bittersweet. They had an orange called bittersweet. And when you..itsa itsa looks like an orange!
A E J A : Mhm!
P O P O P : And when you cut it open it's not an orange.
A E J A : Lemony?
P O P O P : It's a bittersweet orange! It's bitter
A E J A : Mhm
T O G E T H E R : And it's sweet!
A E J A : Haha
P O P O P : Yeauh, it's a bittersweet orange.
A E J A : Mhm
P O P O P : And then cumquats. You seen those right? The ones with the little..
A E J A : Uh little guys, ya!
P O P O P : You like them?
A E J A : Uhmm
P O P O P : Not really right?
A E J A : Not really
P O P O P : Yeauh..
A E J A : You like them?
P O P O P : Yeauh!
A E J A : Ya you grew up pick-
P O P O P : We could just pick ‘em off the tree!
A E J A : Eatin’ ‘em
P O P O P : All this stuff we could just pick right off. We be walking down the street and pick it up, right off the tree
A E J A : Mmm!
P O P O P : Yeauh people have it in their yards and you just pick, just. Most pe- most people don’t care you-
A E J A : You could just pick it-
P O P O P : Ya you could just pick one off
A E J A : That’s niice
P O P O P : And mangows, I mean mangows, especially when mangows season comes it’s it’s like they they just start falling and and people don’t want the the fruit to go you know.. all over on the property cause it doesn’t, it’ll just die
A E J A : and mold or something and ya-
P O P O P : Ya and they rather people just when they fall pick ‘em up. They don’t want you to go up and pick ‘em off
A E J A : Right, not when they’re not ready
P O P O P : Usually when they fall its time, it’s prime. Primetime.
A E J A : Wow
P O P O P : Yep….Florida had a lot of stuff like that.
A E J A : Do you miss that?
P O P O P : Hm?
A E J A : Do you miss that? You don’t have any fruit trees.
P O P O P : Up here you got plums. Plenty plums.
A E J A : Mhm
P O P O P : Grapes. Uhh..apples, all kinds uh apples. New Jersey had apples like Washington
A E J A : Mhm…(Directed towards Grandma) Did you pick up-You had a lot of fruits in your neighborhood growing up grandma? What kinda fruits were in Georgia?
G R A N D M A : What kinda what?
A E J A : Fruits
G R A N D M A : Peach
A E J A : Mmm, ya of course. Georgia Peach.
P O P O P : Yeauh, and and and nuts, pecawns.
A E J A : Mmm
P O P O P : You know pecawns?
A E J A : Mhm
P O P O P : Have uh pecawn tree.
A E J A : Waaaooow
P O P O P : and I and I , last time…well when was that? Ah, I forgot, somebody passed away, I don’t remember who it was. It was across the street from the church. Big. Pecawn. Tree. And you walk under you, you just see pecawns all over the ground.
A E J A : Waow
P O P O P : Ya you just pick ‘em up and just crack-
A E J A : That’s sweet, sweet snack.
P O P O P : Awh Uwh, you just go crazy eatin’ that stuff.
A E J A : Did you like those nuts and peaches, Grandma?
G R A N D M A : Ya, we had plums, plums in Georgia. Big ‘ol black plums, the big black ones.
A E J A : Do you cook with them-
G R A N D M A : They ‘gon find out this man killed those girls (Referring to the NCIS episode on tv)
P O P O P : What is this? One hour?
Grandma leaves the room behind Popop
P O P O P : I said wha-
A E J A : She’s gone, Popop. She’s gone.
P O P O P : I just asked her how long, wh-wh…This is (mumbling) 8, 10...so it’s 12.