not to be eaten

Our present lodgings are close to quite a number of pecan trees. Each time I pass these trees I bend down and pick up at least a few. Some I put in my pockets for eating throughout my day, while others get placed on our porch where they accumulate. I save more than I eat, and the boys seem to do the same, so that the table on which they're placed on the porch is already overflowing with pecans.

The easiest way to crack open a pecan is to take two in my hand and crush them. One cracks, and then I finish peeling it and eat it. The other goes back into my pocket until I want to eat another. This takes place in my right-hand pocket. In the left-hand pocket I have this pecan, which perhaps was once the pecan that I used for cracking others. I haven't noticed that one particular pecan cracks others instead of cracking itself, but perhaps that happens. On the other hand, what does happen to pecans kept inside a pocket is that they rub against other items there, and become rather shiny. Which is why this particular pecan is easily identifiable from the others, and why, after having apparently survived quite a few cracks, has been put out to pasture - its own pocket. I've never kept worry beads, but I can imagine that palming those has a similar effect to handling this pecan.