Around this time, in association with the harvest and fort building
and martial games, we started the tradition of apple wars. An apple
war session began on any day in which there was a n ample supply of
ground fall apples and other fruit and produce from the garden. A
bunch of boys would get together and have a free for all melee of
fruit throwing. There were no real rules it was just fun to run
around and try to hit each other with soft fruit. Everyone who was
invited understood you could throw it hard but not super hard and you
were trying to hurt someone but never hurt them badly and no one
wanted to cause harm. Everyone would play nice and if someone was
disproportionately skilled they would be balanced by opposing a few
people who made up a combined skill match. We would run and throw and
hit and miss for hours and hours laughing and swearing out oaths of
vengeance and taunts. After it was dark and everyone was worn out and
happy we would sit around on the porch or in the house and relive
particularly funny hits and misses. We would laugh and joke and have
some of the really great times that anyone could ever have. We did
this for several years and then we grew up, and moved on to bigger
things but rarely better.
