Potatoes and Radishes

I consider myself a city person-- the Bronx is where I was born, and it is about as city like as you can get. But when I was six years old my family moved to Bethpage, Long Island. There we lived on Third Street.

At that time Third Street was surrounded by potato fields. Potatoes and potato bugs were everywhere. My cousin (who visted every summer) and I liked to squash the potato bugs when we walked to the deli which was about two miles away. You would not believe all the different colors of potato bugs that we saw.

I planted my first garden in the backyard. It was a radish garden. My mom bought me the seeds. She must have known that radishes grew easily. I planted the seeds in the far corner of the yard. Sure enough, in about six weeks green radish plants were filled my garden. With an easy pull, out came bright red radishes. To this day whenever I eat radishes, I think of Bethpage, my mother, radishes, and all those potatoes and potato bugs that we saw.

Pete McDermott