In The Pink

It was the Peace Corps, in it's early recruiting days,  that popularized the maxim, " Is the glass half full? Or is it half empty?"

It is I who hopes to popularize the maxim, "Is that a PINK semi or is it just SEMI pink?"

Peace Corps? Semi? Pink? Water? Full? Empty? Connection?

NONE!

Relevance to today's posting?

NONE!

I won't say my life's desires are complete. But today I can scratch off a long time yearning from my master list.  While it won't be moving pictures?  I can finally illustrate with a STILL PICTURE the phenomenon of WILD LEAF TEA!

[SEE PICTURE 2]

This BLOG posting, by the way, is dedicated to my good friend and colleague Jim Weis. It is Jim who every fall has to listen to my rambling frustration at not being able to tell this story.  WILD LEAF TEA, you say?

The Television Station I retire from ( and the one Jim Weis still works for ) sits above a major creek.  Well, one year in the mid 80's I'm working on the assignment desk.  It's a late October event. For no good reason it is pouring down rain. [Late October moisture in this town tends to be white and fairly solid.]

Well all morning long on this late October day the phone is ringing at the desk.  And on the other end of the line? People, hundreds of them, calling to report this strange FOAMY substance in the middle of the creek. 

This is at a time when the EPA and state and local health agencies  are cracking down on illegal dumping. Citizens are ready at a wink to report any environmental crime. 

Well, I set out to get to the bottom of this foamy mystery?  And the health departments ARE out investigating. Problems:

1. The stuff is everywhere, flowing through at least five metropolitan jurisdictions. 

2. There is no one clear source.

3. If health people are able to indentify the substance? For some reason they are not talking.

I spend all day long trying to piece this story together. And at the end of the day? I talk to a deep throat public works official in the smallest jurisdiction involved. She makes my day.

"Yeah, I know what it is?"

"REALLY?"

"It's TEA!"

"EH?"

"When leaves have been lying around on the ground for a while, they start to decay.  When they decay they release tannins just the same as tea leavesdo in your cup."

"Okay, I'm with you."

"Bodies of water that play host to the leaves turn dark and brackish."

"Uh, huh!"

"Under normal circumstances, raking, freezing and snow pack pretty much cover up the process."

"BUT?"

"Thats right.  When you get a heavy rain in mid to late fall, it causes the tea to foam up. It would happen with your Darjeeling at home if you put it under a faucet."

"So that's what we're looking at in the creek?"

"98 percent sure."

"So I'm going to send a reporter and photographer your way to get this all on tape."

"No you're not.  This was all off the record."

"But?"

CLICK!

Turns out no official wants to call a LEAF a LEAF, because they are only 98 percent sure. I put the story in my little evergreen list to check on every fall? 

In TV the general rule is if you don't have pictures?  You don't have a story. Well, as a reporter, I try to do that story every year for 17 years.  I can never get the video.

Okay, let's jump forward to today.  Our friend Cheri from Ireland is coming to town.  We're hosting a get together for her.  So I'm out cleaning up the yard.  I notice the bird bath and a small pond are really looking dark and brackish.  Nobody needs to see that, I'm thinking?

So? I hook the high powered nozzle up to the hose and walk over to the pond.  I just shove the nozzle into the water and let 'er rip.

"OH MY, OH MY!"

It's foam just like the foam I saw in the 80's.  It just keeps coming pouring over the side of the pond.  I am looking at and smelling a combined maple, sage, ash, scrub oak, dogwood, TEA!

Now I could kick myself for not thinking of just doing a demonstration for a camera to tell that story all those years? But people my age should not engage in the act of trying to kick one's self.  I'm just finally glad I CAN FINALLY TELL YOU WHAT IT IS! 

I hope some of those concerned citizens that called in are still alive to read this.  Jim is just going to be happy I'll finally shut up about it.

Yeah, I tasted it.  Can't say as I'd recommend it? But maybe, like green tea? Maybe it's good for you?

I was going to say it'll "put you in the PINK!"

Show of hands! How many of you know or understand that expression?

I didn't think so.