"Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree"

One late September day I took two year old Ben for a walk in the stroller, and we

passed a neighbor’s house with a tree full of ripening apples in the front yard.  While we

continued our walk, and coming back, I softly sang the Andrews Sisters’ World War II

hit tune, “Don’t  Sit Under the Apple Tree,” mostly to myself.  Later, when I mentioned

this to Grandma Sandy, Ben sang out “Apple tree!”  That prompted me to sing the tune

several times throughout the day for him; and later, while changing his diaper, Ben

abruptly said, “Apple tree, apple tree,”  so I taught him the line, “No, no, no, don’t sit

under the apple tree with anyone else but me….”   He seemed to especially like the

words, “No, no, no….”  Undoubtedly, children often hear that word rebuking them, so

perhaps he enjoyed directing this at an adult.

Over the next few years, on our visits to Wynnewood, we often would walk past that

apple tree, and Ben and I would sing together. The first time we walked to the tree when

it was springtime Ben expressed disappointment that there were no apples, and I

explained about the seasons and how the apples would soon begin to grow in
summer and ripen in autumn.

 My efforts were joyfully rewarded at Thanksgiving, 2006, when all our children and

five grandkids came to visit us in Tulsa. Thanksgiving Day was warm and sunny, and our

daughters-in-law and I took the three infants for a walk.  Ben, now seven, pushed one of

the strollers, and I laughed and felt elated when he began to sing, “Don’t sit under the

apple tree….”  His daddy, Bill, turned to me, smiling, “You’ve got him right where

you want him!”