Persimmons

from w
'Grandma, is that a tomato?'
'No, it's a persimmon.'
'Can I eat it?'
'No, not yet. I want to take photos first.'
The boy frowned and wondered about his eccentric grandmother who buys fruit for making pictures.
'Tomorrow you can eat it, but you mightn't like it. It's a bit like a peach.'
'What's a peach?' asks my Fiji grandson. 'Is it like a mango?'

Well, I wonder if the Adam/Eve story involved a persimmon, a mango, an avocado pear, a pomegranite, as I don't think an apple can cause much chaos. I'd never seen persimmons in my childhood, only in recent years and rarely in our city shops, but there were dozens at the Footscray market yesterday and they weren't expensive.

We went to Melbourne yesterday to visit a young Fijian man in the Spinal Unit of the Austin hospital. Words fail me about this tragedy, that a few moments can change the life of a healthy man and family.

We had left the car at Footscray market - which to me is more interesting than any mall or supermarket - and had used trains. There was one surprise in a street in Footscray when I heard a voice, 'Hello Wendy!' yelled from a distance. It came from a young street poet from Geelong who I hadn't spoken with for years. He called out 'I've handed in my MA thesis at last.' What a pleasure to see Scotty with his new teeth at last. He'd been a troubled young man in earlier times. Also, a few months ago I had read a death notice of a guy with the same name and had wondered why there were no comments about strong poetry! A different Scotty!

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And now the taste test.
The family had never eaten this fruit before so there was trepidation.
'It might be poisonous,' said one.
'I might be allergic to it,' said another.
Anyway my grandson Jordan had a go and then said that it tasted a lot like coconut flesh. I tasted it then and agreed with him - just like coconut!