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Thursday, March 3, 2011

Cheery Cherry Trees

Can you believe this cherry orchard is the last remaining piece

Of the Olson Cherry Farm in Sunnyvale...

One block away from El Camino Real?


These are some very old trees.
I was surrounded with orchards like this when I was young

We played hide and seek

Underneath the sweet smelling blooms of spring

And made forts out of the mustard grass...

It was a sad day indeed for a 10 year old girl

When the bulldozers came to pull out the trees

Across from her elementary school

Replacing her orchard of joy

With a new tract of homes called "Oak Knoll"...

Before the fertile soil was covered

With high tech buildings and asphalt parking lots

Silicon Valley was filled with thousands of acres

Of apricot, plum, pear and cherry trees...

My heart skipped a beat

And a smile filled my face

To see a minuscule remnant of my past

On such a lovely sunny day






2 comments:

Molly said...

Every year more and more agricultural fields and orchards are ripped out in Hollister and replaced with housing tracts. Makes me so sad every time one disappears. Some day it will look like San Jose, too. :(

Anonymous said...

Ahh...I remember it before someone coined the phrase "Silicon Valley." Horrible. And yes, I cringe every...single...time I hear or read it.

(You may be surprised, but San Jose still has a few large orchards...come on down to the "408" and I'll take you on a tour :-))