Pittsburgh: Allegheny North Commons Park
Scooby was sentenced to die.
He had twenty four hours left and I decided that he would not spend it in a cage.
I got special permission to take this "dangerous" dog out on a pass, as long as he and I stayed out of trouble.
Fools.
We went swimming in the rain at Lake Arthur.
We had an ice cream cone from one of the little stands on Route 19 between 422 and Zelienople.
He chased a ball and then promptly murdered it, (the ball deserved it) in a friend's fenced field.
We ate a sack full of $1.00 cheeseburgers from the clown's place and Scooby taught me that the wrappers are indeed edible if you're quick enough.
We went for a long walk along the edge of the Ohio river and got absolutely soaked.
We ended the day at the park by where the trains run through a tunnel underneath your feet. The big evil bastard laid on the bench at my side and ate three cans of vienna sausages out of my fingers and tried to convince me that the fourth can was not actually mine.
I shared.
It was summer after all and summer is a time for food, being outside and combining the two every chance you get.
I still buy vienna sausages now and again, just so I remember.
Pittsburgh's Strip District, nearing the end of a busy Saturday.
The two elderly Filipino women were selling fresh Lumpia in a parking lot way down near the Harp and Fiddle when Kim and I went past. They instantly spotted me as a sucker and began to work me over the way only two seasoned foodie grandmas can.
"Freshest mint, big fat juicy shrimp, last two orders, come on, you know you want them."
One of them held up the cello wrapped tray and showed off their handiwork.
I might have drooled.
"Fresh cilantro and crunchy peppers. You're hungry, I can tell."
They harangued us, but in that good natured, cute and ultimately irresistible way that old women have of getting you to do exactly what they want.
I couldn't come up with a valid argument and we soon parted with a negligible sum of money in the scheme of things and retired to a small table flanked by wee tiny folding chairs that I was terrified would not hold my bulk.
I was wrong.
The warm evening air, the hustle and noise of the market district, the laughter of the two old women at having sold the last of their goods for the day combined with music flowing up the street from a Peruvian pan flute band to create a rather surreal little scene.
But the Lumpia? Wow! That slapped us back into reality almost instantly.
Everything about them screamed fresh from the fat, juicy shrimp to the immaculately concocted peanut and soy dipping sauce. The crunch of the herbs was audible and that was saying something considering how much, "Mmmm'ing" and "This is SO good!" was going on.
Quasi-dirty parking lot? Check. Major road a dozen feet away? Yep. Noise, crowds, a hundred conversations and dozens of other types of stimuli slamming all around us? Absolutely! Fantastic summer food moment? Without even a hint of doubt.
Georgia: Rural Two Lane Blacktop
She was a character out of a movie. She had to be.
Raven ringlet curls, pale but not sickly skin, blue calico dress that hung to mid calf, buxom but not showing it off.
I pulled up to a stop sign on my 1973 Harley FL and she called out to get my attention from her farmstand and held up a single peach the size of a doll's head.
"Sweetest thing you'll ever taste."
Damned peaches…
Peaches are my downfall. Fresh, ripe, sweet, sun warmed peaches are one of the most seductive foods that I can imagine and I have a nearly limitless imagination.
Did I pull over?
You bet your ass I did.
Holly.
Her name was Holly.
Because of course it was.
Holly told me that the peaches were called Bloody Hearts and they only grew in that county and they were the best in the whole wide world.
Yes, she was hot, but the peaches…
The scent of them wafting off of the table was enough to make a grown man, or even someone like me weak in the knees.
She handed me the peach that she had been waving in my direction and issued a challenge.
"If it ain't the best peach you ever ate, you don't have to pay for it."
Seductress…
Holy shit.
It was delicious. It was divine. It was borderline pornographic how good that peach was.
The juice ran up my arm and dripped from my elbow onto the gravel like some kind of angelic lifeblood and that was just from the first bite.
The fuzz felt just right on the tongue, the skin had the perfect snap when you bit into it and the flesh was honeyed and tasted like the absolutely perfect ideal of what a peach should be.
Just take my money.
All of it.
I stood there like some kind of deranged, long haired, bearded Bacchus devouring this decedent fruit.
I paid for that one and another and ate that one too, right there in front of her.
I felt dirty.
But it didn't stop me.
Once I had finished the second one, my senses returned to me just enough that I knew that if I didn't escape soon that I would end up a mindless peach zombie slave working in this devil woman's orchard with the rest of the idiots that she had trapped.
So I bought all that she had, bagged them up, stuffed them into my saddlebags, my backpack and hung the last few from the support bar for the seat.
How much did it set me back? About $40.00.
Worth it?
God damn, yes…
To be continued.
2023 Lance Cheuvront
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