I walk through the wide streets of Vojvodina while I look around Apatin with my Hive friends.
The sidewalk between the fence of the yard and the street is widened by a green area with trees.
In one of the streets, because of the type of trees that grow in the tree rows, called "Plum street", I pass dozens of trees.
There are fruits in the ripening stage on them.
I approach a plum tree and look around and take pictures of the fruits.
I raise my hand to the fruits, in order to check whether they are ripe, when an old woman speaks from behind me in a threatening voice:
"Well yes, it's growing in the street, why shouldn't you touch or maybe even pick some fruit?", angry that I approached the tree that probably grows in front of her yard and that was probably planted by her hand even though it's on public land...
Um, why not, when I've already received criticism, at least I have a why?
And I picked one plum.
Let me write that with a number.
1 plum.
I was lucky that it was an old woman who walked with the help of a cane.
If it wasn't, I believe she would have followed me to return that one plum to her 😂
Only after that, the hosts, native people from Apatin, who also have fruit trees in front of their yards, told me that they, people from Apatin, perceive those trees, which are planted on public lands, as their own.
Although they were planted by their hands, they are on a public place and it is difficult to prevent passers-by from approaching them.
I would understand that it is a protected and prohibited species or that there is a sign under the tree saying that it is the property of the city and that it is forbidden to pick fruit from it.
Well, if only there was a sign saying it was forbidden to pick the fruit from it, I probably wouldn't have approached it.
This is how I got scolded for one plum, which was certainly not ripe enough and which I did not eat.
I threw it under the tree, so it will look like it has fallen, which is probably the fate of a lot of those plums on the trees.
"Let him perish, but I will forbid him to pick even one plum" is probably the old woman's way of thinking 🙂
And that situation reminded me of the distant year 2002, when the neighbor next to my cottage sold his plot.
There were many fruit trees on his plot: apples, pears, apricots, cherries, figs, plums...
With several trees that were planted near the fence that separated our plots, the branches of the neighbor's trees crossed over to my side of the fence.
He never had any comment, when I, my brother or our parents, would pick some of those fruits that were above our yard.
It was like that for years, until a new owner came, with whom we didn't have the best relationship from the start.
On one occasion, when the branches with ripe fruits hung over our yard, I picked an apricot.
Just like the other day in Apatin.
Quantity: 1 piece of apricot.
The new neighbor saw it through his window, came out in front of the house and warned me not to do that anymore, that these are his fruit trees and that he won't let me pick the fruits.
"Okay, neighbor, as you wish," I told him and immediately knew what I was going to do.
When, after 20 days, all the fruits were ripe, I did not allow my neighbor to enter my yard to peel and collect the fallen fruits, and I did not pick or collect them either.
I went to the nearby town to the competent inspection service and asked them to go out on the field.
When the inspector was in my yard, he took pictures of all the fruit that was found on my lawn and called the neighbor to report a misdemeanor to him.
And if we do not reach an agreement, he will issue an order to cut branches or whole trees that enter my plot.
The neighbor couldn't believe it, but he learned his lesson.
I agree that those are his trees. But they also pollute my lawn, and I think it's only fair that in order to remove fallen fruit from my lawn, I can sometimes pick some fruit from a branch, as I've always done, when the old neighbor was around.
I believe that I will never have contact with the old woman from Apatin again and the question of whether I will ever walk down that street again, so her criticism will not be hard on me, although she reminded me of an event from the past, which was a little more stressful for me, because I needed to develop a relationship with that new neighbor, closer to friendship than to quarrel.
In the years that followed, the fruit still grew on the branches we left over the fence, I often picked the ripe fruit, and sometimes a neighbor would bring us some fruit from trees deep in his yard.
This situation with the old woman reminded me of my nature "Nisam zgodan, al' nezgodan jesam" ("I'm not handsome, but I'm awkward"), and of a long-ago event that I share with you this friday.