When I was growing up the saying was “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” It was a good thing I liked apples because I was sick a lot. Imagine how sick I would have been had I not liked apples!
I had allergies as a kid and I still do. Apples don’t do much for allergies. I even had indoor allergies to dust and wood so the fact that we heated with firewood kept in the basement meant my allergies were not seasonal, I had them year round.
One thing I never had, knock on wood was a broken bone or broken teeth. I tried to explain this to our new exchange student when he declared “This is a dangerous country!”
He wasn’t being judgmental or mean; he had just spit out what was left of his broken front tooth.
My sons Jack and Ben just recently heard about cliff jumping at the Temperance River where I grew up when we spread some of my brother Gary’s ashes there in May. My brother loved cliff jumping and he was kind of a daredevil. The nephew apples have not fallen far from the tree as both boys jumped from the first ledge of 20 feet without any hesitation when we were visiting during Fisherman’s Picnic weekend.
I make sure we check the water depth prior to any jumps; I am not a crazy mom. Ha-ha.
I then made the mistake of mentioning Cedar Stump… a much higher and a little more challenging jump of about 40 feet, give or take. Jack found YouTube videos of this jump and decided he wanted to give it a try.
Tim from Germany was introduced to the experience of cliff jumping at Temperance River over Labor Day weekend. He handled the first ledge jump of 20 feet easily. After all three boys had jumped several times they decided they wanted me to show them how to get to Cedar Stump. It’s a little tricky but fun to climb down to where I have not stood for more than 30 years. It brought back memories of lots of friends and good times.
My son Ben jumped first and came up with a victorious hoot! You could almost see his heart pumping! Then Tim jumped second, he came up with a small part of his front tooth in his hand— he had bumped his teeth together when he hit the water.
Jack took one look at this scene and said, “Yup, I’m out.” He might be a ringleader but he’s no dummy. He and I climbed back down. I have no doubt he will be the first one off the ledge next trip.
Until then he will have to keep healthy, eating his apples.
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.
George Bernard Shaw
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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