Lemon Tree and Roses

"Lemon tree very pretty
and, the lemon flower so sweet,
but, the fruit of the lemon
is impossible to eat."
(...can't remember who wrote this song, sorry...)


Well, back in the 30's and 40's California boasted numerous lemon groves. Of course before long all those groves would be sold for housing tracks or shopping malls. However, most older homes with generous back yards had at least one lemon tree along with walnut, orange, grapefruit, and of course the forever fig tree. As they say: "Those were the good 'ol days!"

Needless to say, lemons were a major part of everyday preparations: added to the dish water to help remove oils and to the rinse water for the lovely perfume; if you were a blond (as I was) lemon/water was used as a rinse/conditioner after a shampoo; lemonade was a must during the summer; and lemon cake, cookies and of course lemon pie the ultimate. Actually, we only had one lemon tree so Clarence (my father) grafted branches of orange and grape-fruit creating a 3 in 1 citrus wonder. This grafting of plants knowledge was learned when Clarence became friends with a local rose nursery ,owner who grafted rose trees. Obviously, our old white clapboard house was enshrined with grafted tree roses, rose bushes and climbing roses.

I mentioned we had a walnut tree. Well, it was a very old, very tall, very wonderful tree that sat at the very back of our property right at the edge of the alley way. Back then, all older homes had alley ways where garbage was placed in a lid covered metal can to be picked up weekly by a huge pig farm in Pomona. Also, everyone set out boxes of items no longer wanted that were in good condition for another family perhaps. Larger items would be picked up for land fill. Paper would be burned in your very own concrete-slab trash-burner with a smoke stack and an iron door. The ashes were usually mixed into your garden.

I digress, back to that huge walnut tree where Clarence hung a rope swing for my sister Barbara and me, he had also planted a 'Bella Portugal' rose climber that managed to reach the top. When the leaves had dropped during the Fall, the large, rose-pink flowers would turn that tree into the biggest tree-rose you ever saw. Of course, when I returned to the West 4th Street house many years later I was terribly sad to see that the wonderful walnut-rose-tree had been cut down and the roots ground away. Needless to say, those walnuts had been fantastic to eat finding it difficult to wait for them to turn from green to crunchy brown. Reminds me of Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree." I did notice the lemon tree still stood.