Date Pom Fom by auntietk
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Description
Date Palm Farm
LaQuinta, California
October, 2013
The title of this shot really is as I intended it to be! I realize it won't make any sense unless you know the story ... so I'll try to relate the tale as best I can. (My apologies to the members of my family who have already heard this story a million times ... you can skip the following text.)
My husband, Bill (bmac62), is originally from Long Island, New York. Although he has not lived in New York for well over 50 years, he still has an accent which I think is adorable. :P
Bill has a cousin named Bill (I'll call them bmac and Bill C so you know which one I'm talking about). Bill C is married to Judy. Bill C's sister (bmac's other cousin) is Lynne, and her husband is Jim. They are ALL from New York. Got all that?
So we visited Bill C and Judy in LaQuinta a couple years ago. The timing was fortuitous, because Lynne and Jim were arriving the next day, and we could all spend a week together visiting and catching up. All five of these people have New York accents. I was in heaven. :P
The first night we were there, Bill C came to our campsite to visit. He was telling us about LaQuinta, and how it's laid out in one-mile square communities. Each community has its own golf course. He explained that the community they live in had a corner cut out, because the man who owned the date pom fom wouldn't sell, so they just built the golf course and the houses around the guy's property.
"Date pom fom," he kept saying. "Why can't I say that? Date pom fom."
I laughed, and said it was because "palm" and "farm" don't actually rhyme unless you're from New York. Pom and fom rhyme with Mom and Tom, just in case you haven't heard a New York accent recently. New Yorkers don't have a deep and abiding interest in the letter R. (You should have heard Bill (bmac) the day he was reading the cover of National Geographic to me and told me there was an article on Solar Super Storms. "Sola supa stoams." Some days I need a translator!)
So anyway, I got to spend an entire week with these lovely people, all of whom I was crazy about. SUCH a good time!
Bill C assured me that although he still had a slight New York accent, Judy didn't have one at all. (Imagine the giggle I got out of that! Anyone with half an ear could tell immediately where they're from!)
Off and on all week I got them to talk about date palm farms just so I could hear one of them say it.
:)
So!
This is a date pom fom. Or a date palm farm, depending upon where you're from. I thought the bags they put around the date clusters were fascinating.
If you want to know more about growing and harvesting dates, check out this website from DATELAND ... it's very well done, and has loads of pictures so you can easily follow the process.
Comments (18)
and of course, they have a date website, right? Great image and cool narrative! thanks for the smile
What a great read for first thing in the morning! At 6am our time I let the dogs out for a wee and the little ones have their breakfast and then I get back into bed with a drink of hot water. This is when I do catchup on the ebots, so perfectly timed to look at your post. It never occurred to me that dates might be grown there, I always imagined Israel and thereabouts.
excellent
I love your story and the pic. We have a lot of different accents over here even in our tiny country!!
What a familiar story. My entire family is from New Yawk. My cousins were raised on Lon-giland. My brother, sister and I are the only exceptions. Its too bad Andrea never visited Hollywood. We line the streets with palm trees. Interesting picture. It looks like all the dates are wearing depends.
fascinating view and story
Never seen them wrapped in bags like this. Having grown up on Long Island (Queens) myself, I'm very familiar with the accent. Though my wife & I moved to the west coast over 40 years ago, Arlene still has a really strong one. Mine is much less prominent (I moved to NY at the age of five, from France), but still noticeable to west coasters...
Lol, the same here in Germany! Even i, as a bavarian, have a problem to understand someone from the south of Bavaria. In northern Germany it's even worse! Very interesting story and image!
Thank you for that thoroughly enjoyable narrative. It made the date pom fom photo even more interesting. I still have a smile on my face as I picture you bringing the conversation back around to the date palm farm again and again just so you could enjoy the sound of the New Yawk accent.
HEHE! What a fun story Tara. I think the very same as SunriseGirl. I would have liked to be a fly on the wall that day you were with them :)
Superb capture Tara. God bless.
LOL! Yes, they do look like they're in Depends (adult undergarments for those who don't know)...I would think that the ripening of dates would be hindered by being bagged, but what I know about farming in general, and dates in particular, is zilch! Great capture of this arcane sight!
Wonderful image and story! Very amusing. I saw these wraps on tv once but to see them in "real life" thru your image is a treat!
Lol, what a great story!! My dad was from Brooklyn and I swear sometimes it took him 10 minutes to say my name; it came out something like Maaaaarrrrolynnnn!! And how cute that the poms are wearing skirts!!
Just read where the white muslin bags are to protect the ripe dates from birds and insects and to catch any dates that decide to fall off early. Glad you got to relate the date pom fom story...at long last:-) I was amazed at how large these trees are...must have been producing for a long time.
Awesome capture and story!
Yo! Da pom fom is the bom........ y'know..... An' da pitcher is jus' too coo..... y'know... Rough translation: This is a really cool photo and even better with the story, Tara... Sounds like you all had a grand time! Hhehehe
What strange looking plants, never seen them before like this.. Thanks for posting Tara, and the story lol Rob