A Pummelo Story

When my dad was a young boy, younger than myself now, farmers in southern Taiwan would train monkeys to guard their crops, no doubt from little boys running around hankering for the taste of fresh picked pummelo or mango. However, my dad thought of a clever way to get around those monkeys. He would pick up a stone and throw to miss at the monkeys. The monkeys would get angry, grab the first throwable thing they could grab, and start chucking things back. These things would usually be the fruit from the tree they were sitting in and guarding. My dad would catch the fruit as it came hurtling through the air at him. If the fruit dropped on the ground, it would be bruised or smashed, so he became very good at catching, and throwing. That is why baseball became popular in Taiwan. Jessica is an avid fruit eater who is looking forward to bamboo shoot season. She braved 45 degree fahrenheit temperatures with a t-shirt and wet hair to photograph those monkeys, but the weather is picnic ready. Wednesday high of 22 F.