The First Adocado

By Greg Schindler

"The First Avocado" is a coming-of-age story for baseball pitching tomboy, Annie, "almost eight going on twenty-one", and her eight-year-old niece, Doris. Annie's mother (and Doris's grandmother), Bernice, explains: you're "a tad young... but the best time to answer young girls' questions is whenever they begin having them. Otherwise young ladies are likely to start coming up with wrong answers that are a lot worse than the right ones." ... Annie English (my mother) narrates the family's seven-week journey from Port Huron to Florida, and the years they live near Tampa. "Gee, Frecks," I said. "I told you about Vaughn breathing mustard gas in the war. Doc Werner says his lungs are getting worse. He won't make it through many more winters if we stay in Michigan. We gotta skedaddle to a better climate." .
... For seven weeks brothers, Vaughn (31) and Harry (15), drive the furniture-laden truck from 6 AM until 8 or 9 PM. They average 15 MPH. The other seven family members hit the road in the car about 8 AM. They pass the truck near noon, travel until 5 PM, and have dinner ready for the truck drivers when they arrive. The family camps by the road and bathes in nearby streams. ... ...
The truck breaks down often. Vaughn, a mechanic in the army, makes repairs. Harry rides a bike to the nearest town for parts. Often they wait days for parts to ship from Detroit via train.ll .... ...
One day, while traveling, her parents tell some of the family history. Bernice shares the story of her father, a Civil War doctor. Annie's father, Fredrick, recalls his parents travel to America and his youth. ... ...
The trip has humorous adventures: We came in view of a pond at the bottom of a waterfall. My eyes and mouth flew to their widest. Six boys played there in the water--all very naked I shut my mouth from bugs as we dropped to our knees behind a bush. "They don't have any swim suits," Doris squeaked a whisper in my ear, saying the very most obvious thing you could imagine. ...
Leaflets in Port Huron promise warm winters, nice beaches, and many oranges in Florida. Those fliers don't lie, but on their farm near Tampa the family also finds terribly hot summers, the appalling 1928 Okeechobee hurricane scare, racial prejudice, and (finally) the KKK
About the title: Avocados soften only after they're on the ground. When the first one falls, you know all on the tree are ready to be picked. Calvin explains to Annie: "If you know which is the first to fall, you're very lucky, because the first avocado is the sweetest. Whoever finds it must eat it when it ripens, and they will have a year of good luck." He later tells her she is "like the first avocado-the sweetest and the luckiest."
This historical fiction includes the stories my mother told about that iconic trip, the time her family spent in Florida, and about her grandparents' lives. Mom died in 2019 at the age of 99.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DX8BH7Q4
• ISBN13: 9798310598072
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"