Live or Die??

We went to the boys' baseball games yesterday. Jonathan plays at the Anderson Parks and Recreation location, just behind their facility. As we were heading to the field, we crossed under a tree that was full of berries...the only reason we noticed was that the ground was COVERED with ripe, juicy, dark red berries...thousands of them. We didn't realize they were there until we were half way under the tree, so we kept going. It was the strangest tree...the berries looked just like blackberries, yet, this was an enormous tree. Luis, being the adventursome lad that he has always been (and I am sure will always be!) decided he was going to eat some berries. He asked a passerby if the berries were edible, and the man said, "Why sure they are, I been eating them there berries since I was knee high to a grasshopper". (Translation for my northern friends: "Yes") So, Luis began to eat a bunch of them. About a minute later, another man walked up to Luis and said, "Them things are poison!". *silence* Luis looked at me and I looked at him. He dropped the berries that were in his hand. All the color drained out of his face. "A kid ate a handful of those berries last year, tore up his stomach and he 'bout near died" the gentleman continued. Luis and I just stood there, motionless. So I began to rattle off a few options...induce vomiting...go to the ER...and as we were discussing how to handle the imminent knock at death's door, we turned around to see an older gentlemen with two of his grandkids. They were under the same tree, and the grandfather was picking berries and giving them to his grandkids...one for him, two for them...they were gobbling the berries like there was no tomorrow. This grandfather seemed like he had been around the block a time or two before. I went over, and sheepishly asked the man if he knew what kind of tree that was. "Why, this is a huckleberry tree", he exclaimed between bites, "and the berries are perfectly ripe". Suddenly, the color came back to Luis's olive cheeks, and a smile to his face.

After some online investigation, I discovered that the tree was actually not a huckleberry, but rather a Mulberry...regardless, Luis is still alive and well, 24 hours later.