kristy bowen | writer & book artist

  While I know many people whose upbringing was far more rural than mine, I often remember that childhood when and where I grew up was a little more feral than kids these days (both in suburbs and cities.) My very city-raised husband and I were watching something where a child was perched in a tree and I said something about my favorite climbing tree, to which he admitted he had never in his life been up in a tree (nor felt any reason to do so.) Considering my favorite past time, from around age 9-14 had been to perch myself in the crotch of or under the apple tree at the corner of the yard, I was a little surprised he'd missed this sort of fun.  Mind you, it was definitely only 3-4 feet up a climb at any point, nothing that would have given my mother anxiety. An apple tree that had lots of crooks and nooks and had been there forever. The main branches at the bottom were sturdy and twisted around each other. The apples it produced were terrible..green and overly sour/bitter. M...