I grew up in the Central Valley of California in the 60's and 70's, and had a Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer sort of a childhood, filled with adventures in an area of the country known at that time as "The Fruit Basket of America." Thousands of acres of peach, almond, walnut, and olive groves stretched for miles in all directions, and I and my best friend often hiked out along the railroad tracks or canal banks into the country to catch lizards, snakes, and frogs or just explore and play in and around the orchards on the blistering hot, summer days we often had.
The son of a small business owner and an 8th grade English teacher, my early diet was filled with economically conservative-type meals like tuna casserole, hot dogs, burgers, chicken, pork chops, and other generally meat heavy bills of fare, some of which I resisted like it was deadly poison, much to my mother's aggravation. In retrospect, perhaps I wasn't too far off in my early assessment of this kind of food.
One good habit that I can really thank my mom for was that she always insisted that I eat some fruit every day, and was always happy to cut up an apple or an orange for me as an afternoon or evening snack, as well as making sure she sent me to school with something packed in my lunch pail or brown bag. Of all the dietary advice I received in my early years, that has been one that has stuck with me, and one that I have tried to pass along to my kids as well.
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