Growing up in Los Angeles (Part Five): Plum Trees of L.A.

   

Part 5: Plum Tree of L.A.

By Armando Ortiz

During this time, I was just in third grade, as mentioned earlier. In the front yard of the duplex where I lived was a plum tree, and every spring there was a blossoming of violet papier-mâché like blossoms. I really didn’t give it much thought back then, to me the tree was all that it was, a tree, but I do recall spending hours playing around its cool shade. Sometimes I would go up and play with my G.I. Joes, other times I would climb up and get lost in the labyrinth of my imagination, thinking of the tree house that could be built on it and of the endless vistas that I could see while resting on the branches.

The fruit that the tree bore was not that tasty; at least that is how I remember the tiny peach/plumbs being. The fruit seemed to never fully ripen and even after they reached the delicate yin yang of yellow and orange they still were not sweet. My mother would cook the peach/plums to caramelize them by mixing water, cinnamon, panela and pieces of platano along with the small fruit. This rustic process made the sour fruit edible and delicious. A few days later, when the tiny peach/plums were ready to eat my mom would let us eat them. The caramelized fruit would stay in the refrigerator for a few days inside a round glass bowl and everything inside would slowly disappear.

Something that did annoy me was the incessant amount of resin that came out the tree. Sometimes while climbing the tree my hands would get smothered by a glob of young amber. The tree trunk had it on its bark, and so did the ends of the tiny fruits, it was as if the tree was always weeping this sticky substance. In the hot summer days I especially loved climbing up the tree and lying on one of the branches pretending to be lost in the jungle, hiding in the cool shade of the dense green foliage. Now the tree is no longer there, I guess a few years after we moved out the owners decided to cut down the tree.

Growing up in Los Angeles (Part Four): Third Grade in L.A.

Growing up in Los Angeles (Part Six): El Biker - Bikers of South Central L.A.