To the Editor:

The article in The Parkland Press Focus section in the June 26 newspaper about removing excess fruit brought back a flood of pleasant memories for this 82-year-old.

The year was either 1944 or 1945, and I am confused because one of those years all of the eighth graders in the Schnecksville Elementary School who were males, and who had permission from their parents, were allowed two weeks off from school to harvest tomatoes and potatoes as long as we kept up with our "lessons."

And those were great memories also, but that's another letter.

The Focus article explains when there is more than one piece of fruit on the central leader, allowing all of those pieces of fruit to ripen results in small, undeveloped fruit.

Well the word was out in Schnecksville that Trexler Orchards was looking for boys who were just out of school for summer vacation, to work as "thinners" in their apple orchards and there were many of those orchards within walking distance.

There were two boys to a tree. One working from the ground, and the other from a ladder, and a foreman who kept track of our work, by punching our work card showing just how many trees we "thinned."

We got paid for each tree we completed and Jackie Liscka was my partner and he worked from the ladder.

All we had to do was to look at each central leader and pick of the smallest pieces of apples and throw them on the ground, allowing the largest one to grow to a nice red delicious or golden delicious or Macintosh apples.

In the autumn, Schnecksville residents were allowed to pick up ripe fruit that had fallen on the ground to make applesauce or other items, but soon word got around and persons were driving up to the orchards and picking fruit off of the trees, and the practice was stopped and dogs patrolled the orchards, but that again is another story.

Thank you Parkland Press for those precious memories.

Ken Clauser

South Whitehall Township