During the Great Depression in the 1930's people lost their jobs, banks closed and long lines formed in the streets called "bread lines".
You had to stand in line all day to get a free loaf of bread to feed your family!
In a cabin in the Appalachian mountains there was a family of four. Two children (a boy and a girl), a mom and a dad who had lost his job
at the local sawmill. Things looked really bleak. The children were afraid they'd starve to death.
"Mommy," said the little boy, "are we going to die?"
"No, no, no" the mother reassured him, "let me show you something."
The mother walked the boy and his small sister over to a pantry and opened the door. She got a stool and stepped up to remove a large box from
the top shelf. They followed her back into the kitchen where she placed it on the table and opened it.
Inside was all sorts of brightly colorful fruit! Oranges, bananas, grapes, cherries and a huge pineapple!!
"You see that my little ones?"
The children nodded silently with wonder brimming over in their eyes.
"As long as we have this to fall back on we are never going to starve to death!"
The brother and his little sister relaxed and smiled huge smiles.
"Can we have a cherry right now?"
"No, sweetheart, this is for later. Much later if things get really really bad."
As the weeks crawled by and the daddy hunted the woods for squirrel, rabbit or even less appetizing possibiles, the children began to lose weight.
They became listless. Played very little. Were hollow of eye and pale.
The parents often heard them whimpering in their beds at night with their little bellies growling like distant thunder.
The mother would light a candle and fetch the box from the pantry shelf and place it on the bed in front of the starving children for them to see.
"It looks so delicious, Mommy! Please, please....can't we have just a taste of.....one....just one grape?"
But, the mother would sternly shake her head from side to side with great sadness and tell them it was for later. "When things get really bad."
This reassured them and they'd drift off to a peaceful sleep.
The winter was hard and the snowdrifts prevented much hunting. All the game animals seemed to vanish.
The nights were freezing and overcast with frequent high winds and flashing bolts of hostile lightning.
Spring came.
The thaw brought a new season and the forest came alive.
Hunters came to the cabin and knocked on the door. Louder. Louder. They opened it and called out, "Anybody home?"
They found them. All dead in their beds. Holding each other, the little brother and sister; the Mom and Dad. Gaunt and wispy they were like the
limbs of a leafless tree.
On the dinner table a few feet away stood a box.
The hunters opened it not knowing what to expect.
Inside, a cheery and colorful display like you sometimes see in the large department stores back East: Wax Fruit.
The Truth is Wax Fruit.
