Tomatoes Free for the Asking

". . . a knack for finding little stories from the past that illuminate the spirit of the time and for mining sources for details that enrich his tales. – Chris Rogers, Winona Post "Tomatoes Free for the Asking" is a quaint term remembered from the 1800s, yet heard in the 1950s of my youth. It was a simple expression written on a piece of cardboard set alongside a pile of tomatoes near someone's garden?or on the front porch. It was an invitation to take as you wish, with an expectation of acknowledgement?a simple courtesy to honor the offer. Little tidbits of courtesy such as this remind me of days when kids shared a tin cup at the water pump, when we helped a neighbor out with a car stuck in a snow bank or in moments of just being alone with the stars and our thoughts. Throughout the days we learned lessons of freedom and responsibility that carried us into an uncertain future. The lessons sustained and guided us as we practiced them with new generations. Some of those are contained herein, in stories that made up part of life for me in a small Minnesota town on the Mississippi River.