Unlike a box of chocolates that is full of surprises, cherries are basic.

There are about one thousand varieties, ranging from sweet to tart. Washington State grows the sweetest, and Michigan grows the tartest.

Sweet or tart, the seeds are always present and must be dealt with.

Come closer:

I have a grand story to tell about cherries that will amaze and enlighten your wisdom. 

My story may be exaggerated, but it is an honest-to-goodness story that I have spun for you.

When I was a kid, I heard about a guy named Demosthenes who lived in Greece and would put cherry seeds in his mouth. 

He wanted to improve the way he talked.

Every day, he would walk to his Father’s orchard by the sea when he was five years old.

One day, while he was practicing with a mouthful of cherries, his Dad came to the orchard and caught him with cherry seeds pushing out his cheeks. 

His Dad scolded him, saying, “The more you eat, the more profits we lose.”

Demosthenes tried to explain and make an excuse to avoid punishment. Before he could mount a defence, his Dad shouted, “What did your Mom tell you about talking with your mouth full?”

His knees began to shake, and he quickly spat the seeds into the Aegean Sea. 

The seeds floated all the way to Michigan in the USA, the salt water made them tart.

Some seeds clung to the starboard side of a slow boat to China. While waiting in Hong Kong to shove off, they ate some sweet and sour soup.

The cook was new and used too much sugar and not enough vinegar. 

The sweet remained, as they landed in Washington.

Remember, when I said sweet cherries grow in Washington, and the tart ones grow in Michigan?

Good, now back to the story. 

We last saw Demosthenes with his father, and he was worried his father would get really mad and yell at him.

He always stood erect when he addressed his Father, “My dear most honorable Father, when I grow up, I want to be a politician. That is why I have to practice with cherry seeds in my mouth. People always believe you when there is a cherry on top.”

Dad rolled his eyes and said, “You’re on your own, Little D. I am not paying for acting classes.”

The end

Here are a couple of facts about Demosthenes. 

He was a renowned Athenian statesman and orator.

He used small pebbles, not cherry seeds, and practiced his oratory by speaking with pebbles in his mouth, shouting over the sound of waves crashing against the shore.

Reading this, I was able to imagine a scene in a cherry orchard, near the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece.

The first president of the United States had an encounter with a cherry tree.

George Washington chopped down a cherry tree with an axe, and when his Dad asked who did it, he replied, “It is I. For I cannot tell a lie.”

A story was first reported by Mason Locke Weems, who wrote a biography about George Washington in 1806.

Mr. Weems` goal was to teach children who read those words about the importance of telling the truth.

Here is the part that is never taught.

George’s Dad was a very wise man, and he praised his son for his honesty and knew this big fact:

“You never yell at a kid with an axe in his hand."

(c) LuMarLee 2025

WRITTEN IN 1897  by E. Hough ~ Published in 1898 by D. Appleton and Company of New York

I saw a lot of Cowboy movies during the fifties, and many of the scenes I remembered seem to be based on this book.

I found the book in a used bookstore. It is a slice of history about the life of cowboys who worked on cattle drives in the American West between 1860 and 1895.

The 343-page book tells a story of those times.

Here is a quote from page 182:

“The monochrome of winter, the blue-grey of cold desolation, oppressed it all.”

I wondered who would work under those conditions to drive cattle to market.

Here is my guess.

I saw it as a story of young men breaking free from the rules of civilization who chose privation over comfort and embraced the rules of cattle drives.

Nobody would be calling daily meetings and telling them what to do. They knew what needed to be done and did it.

The job had one goal: to bring those Longhorns from Texas to Kansas.

Sitting straight as an arrow in the saddle, they were the boss over the cattle; nobody was a boss over them, except the Trail Boss.

Together as one. Rider and horse. 

Doing an important job. Bringing beef to people living in the East and helping them lead productive lives.

Under the BlueSky, nothing to see but dust and leather. Chowing down with workmates around a campfire, telling stories, and embellishing a few to make them more exciting.

The book can be read online at  “babel.hathitrust.org.”

Here is another quote from page 182:

“The sky is even in its colours, except that now and then there scuds across it a strange and ominous thing,”

The quote reminded me of the song written by Stan Jones in 1948, “Ghost Riders in the Sky” He said that he heard the story in 1926 from an old cowboy when he was 12.

I am certain that the old cowboy had lived during that time and lived it once more when he told Stan his story.

Hear Stan Jones song on Youtube