CHINA BERRY

If you're from the eastern and central parts of Texas, you'll no doubt be familiar with the China Berry tree. It had blue-purple flowers, dark green smallish leaves, and in the fall, those rotting berries that would cling to the tree until the new growth in the spring replaced them. I remember vividly how the hard cores of the berries would shoot out of the lawn mower and ping off the side of the house, or purposely turn the discharge of the mower towards my sister across the yard and shoot the berries at her bare legs. The ground below the tree would be so littered with them, no grass would grow. When we lived in Nacodgoches, there were three China Berry trees growing in a row behind the house. They were spaced just the right distance apart for shooting with a sling shot the hard green berries that formed in the spring. My brother and I would sit in opposing trees and spend a hour or two shooting those berries at each other, hand after hand full of berry clusters at arm's reach. Wonder that either of us didn't loose and eye.