The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1929-10-31

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Kennewick on the Columbia
October 20, 1929
Dear Editor:
Sometimes wonder if you ever
miss me when am away for so
long or if you are so busy in the
pursuit of your various duties
that you have no time to think
about your absent friends?
Well to tell the truth about it,
/ have been picking apples. Pick
ing apples as you know is the first
recorded job in history of man
kind and we are still trying to
"get away with it" and with more
or less success.
i Now / don't pretend to be the
best apple picker in the world nor
the fastest nor the most proficient,
but can say without fear of
honest contradiction that when
do pick an apple it stays picked,
it never gets back on the tree
again. One thing / like about the
job is that it gives a person lots
of time to think about his past
life-his mistakes and the mistakes
of others. Without going to far
into personal history I would like
to say that my while life seems to
have been made up of series of
mistakes.
l remember when / was only
three days old how / cried and
cried for milk when there was
whiskey in the house.
But other people made mistakes.
Remember how we were taught to
believe that George Washington
was some kind of a super man till
some historian brought out the
/ facts that he was only human and
liked an occasional glass of wine
and was wont to flirt bit.
Some one else said that st. Pat
rick drove all the snakes out of
Ireland when the truth of the mat
ter was that those fellows drank
so much potato whisky that
whenever snake bit one of them
it Immediately died.
Another said Sir Issac Newton
was a smart man because he found
out why an apple dropped to the
ground. What really proved that
he was a snort fellow was the
fact that he was asleep under the
tree instead of trying to pick the
apple.
Mankind was always in hurry
and in our haste we sometimes dis
card things and customs before
they have fully served their use
fulness. Take for instance when
we evoluted from the monkey we
were in hurry to get clear away
from even the appearance of our
hairy ancestors and yet what a
great help long flexible tail and
pliable hind feet would be to some
of us in this fruit picking bust
mess.
Another thing remember afew
years ago when the fruit growers
had a scheme of catching the cod
! ling moth by trapping him Tor herr
with a pot of cider or some other
secret concoction in little tin
kettle placed in tree? The idea
was to get said moth drunk enuf
that he would either laugh him
self to death or pick fight with
neighbor. Now, think the rea-
son this scheme failed was that
not enough of the stuff ever got
to where the moths could reach it.
Now don't misunderstood me here.
I do not wish to cast any shadow
of suspicion upon any orchard
owner or any of his employees. As
a rule they are honest, hard work
ing men.
But to get back to my story. The
other day came upon some of
those little pots hanging in a
tree. The original mixture had
long since evaporated but a recent
rain had filled the pot about half
full and so being both thirsty and
curious / was tempted to take a
little drink. Well sir, can't just
explain what did happen next.
Don't it beat all how quick every
thing can change when q man be-
gins to do things he hadn't ought
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