Two short mulberry stories, Cathy...
1.) when we were little we lived near a patch of woods that was comprised mainly mulberry trees, and all summer long we used to run like wild banshees in and amongst those trees staining our bare feet a deep fantastic PURPLE. Mom allowed it, though she cringed all June and July everytime she saw the bottoms of our feet. I remember at bath-time come August there'd be a night she'd start srubbing the tar out of our soles and it took weeks of rough scrubbing to get those stains off our feet and return them to their original bright pink. Always that first scrub-night in early August she forbid us to go barefoot anymore the rest of the summer- said she'd be danged if she was gonna have any kids of hers returning to school with feet that looked dirty and bruised!
2.) Near the end of 5th grade, Coach Peterson, who was the 6th grade science teacher came in to give we students a quick summer-time assignment that we'd be turning-in a couple of short weeks after we started in his class-room the following Fall. We were to collect and identify leaves from 100 different trees- tape and display them into an album and write the name of the tree across the bottom of each leaf's page- as well as exactly where we found each leaf. I loved that summer-long project, as I learned how to identify alomst any tree- and had never given that sort of thing much thought before then. Anyway, that was the first time I became aware that mulberry trees are one of those very rare trees that have TWO kinds of leaves and that each looks distinctly different. One leaf is round and pretty with a saw-toothed edge, the other is oddly shaped like a mittened-hand (or like Michigan!). Fun Fact!
1.) when we were little we lived near a patch of woods that was comprised mainly mulberry trees, and all summer long we used to run like wild banshees in and amongst those trees staining our bare feet a deep fantastic PURPLE. Mom allowed it, though she cringed all June and July everytime she saw the bottoms of our feet. I remember at bath-time come August there'd be a night she'd start srubbing the tar out of our soles and it took weeks of rough scrubbing to get those stains off our feet and return them to their original bright pink. Always that first scrub-night in early August she forbid us to go barefoot anymore the rest of the summer- said she'd be danged if she was gonna have any kids of hers returning to school with feet that looked dirty and bruised!
2.) Near the end of 5th grade, Coach Peterson, who was the 6th grade science teacher came in to give we students a quick summer-time assignment that we'd be turning-in a couple of short weeks after we started in his class-room the following Fall. We were to collect and identify leaves from 100 different trees- tape and display them into an album and write the name of the tree across the bottom of each leaf's page- as well as exactly where we found each leaf. I loved that summer-long project, as I learned how to identify alomst any tree- and had never given that sort of thing much thought before then. Anyway, that was the first time I became aware that mulberry trees are one of those very rare trees that have TWO kinds of leaves and that each looks distinctly different. One leaf is round and pretty with a saw-toothed edge, the other is oddly shaped like a mittened-hand (or like Michigan!). Fun Fact!
). So they just fell and rotted. Actually, they fermented.