You know how a certain smell can take you back in time to a place you used to visit often. Most people say when that happens they think of their grandparent's house growing up. For myself there are smells that take me back to the old Enchanted Forest amusement park. The other day I encountered a scent that really took me back somewhere but I couldn't figure out where. I thought and though about it...and starting building a mental picture in my head. Eventually it came to me...a little produce store we used to go to all the time when I was little called Sewell's Orchard.When my family first moved to Columbia, our little development that we lived in was directly across the street from a giant fruit orchard called Sewell's Orchard. If you drove back into the orchard there was a little store that sold your typical farmers market stuff like fruit, veggies, jellies, honey...stuff like that. There also sold little bags of candy and everytime we went my brother and I were allowed to each get a bag of candy. I usually got wax bottles and my brother favored candy dots (the kind you eat off paper.) I hadn't thought of Sewell's Orchard store in years. It's amazing how a smell can unlock so many memories!
Here's a "surprise" twist in the saga of Sewell's Orchard. In the mid-80's the Sewell's sold the land and now it's a huge housing development! Can you believe it!?
SURPRISE!! New houses and less trees in Columbia. Shocking.
ReplyDeleteI was one of the boys who worked at Sewell’s Orchards. The quantity of us putting time in there probably amounted to a few hundred, as each spring brought a fresh batch of sixteen to seventeen year olds (farm labor was allotted an exemption to the minimum age and wage law) to work at Sewell’s Orchard. The labor intensive period started the late spring, peaked in the summer, and (for the survivors considered really dedicated) into early fall.
ReplyDeleteThe passing of time has cast a filter over memories of those times, casting them in a golden glow. However, I do vaguely recall ten-hour days (with paid lunch!) in sweltering weather under sunny blue skies with peach fuzz grinding into the skin like asbestos. So I returned several years ago, after the landscape was covered with houses to see the changes.
It was sort of a surrealistic experience. I recognized where the irrigation ponds had been, the names of the streets roughly approximated where the different varieties of fruit trees had stood, and the hills and the dales remained in place. I even found Donald Sewell’s and Ronald Sewell’s houses were still present.
I knocked on what used to be the home of Donold Sewell. I expected a tall, strongly built man with dark sunglasses to open the door and tell me that the hired labor couldn’t come up to the house. Instead, a teenager opened the door and patiently listened to me tell of my days on the Orchard. He gave me a tour of the house and I gave him an address and phone to contact (his mother was intending to write a book about the Orchard – I never received a letter or phone call, so I guess it didn’t happen.)
I took a final look around the development with a bit of sadness (but to be honest, I didn’t miss that peach fuzz) and went on to visit family who continued to live in the region.
I grew up in Laurel. My mother would take my brother and I to go pick apples at Sewells. I remember taking the empty baskets out there and climbing the ladders to pick apples.. and taking bites out of every other apple.. you just couldn't stop. I decided to search it on the internet and found it had been developed.. but you could still see the hills and dales. The photograph above is awesome. Glad you posted it. It kind of took away some of the sting of seeing it developed.
ReplyDeleteI am also one of the boys that worked at Sewell's. I remember Dave Arnett well as we overlapped by at least one summer. It was a great place for a teenage boy to work - hard work for low pay, but you were treated as a man and learned a lot of life lessons. My brothers and I still tell Sewell's stories whenever we get together.
ReplyDeleteThe picture you posted really brings back memories.
Wow, great to see that name! I remember working there! Great memories! Not just of our family buying the fresh fruit, but working in the store, washing and packing fruit, folding 100's of fruit boxes and running the register. I didn't work in the fields, but I do remember the peach fuzz! The orchard was such a treat to be able to buy fresh fruit right there in the middle of Columbia. I worked there when Mike worked there. Treasured memories of my first job!
DeleteI am yet another Sewell's laborer. I worked there for 2 summer's (1973 and 1974) and remember working among the peach and apple trees with David Arnett. David was great to work with, very hard working and inquisitive. We all looked up to an older gentleman who worked along side us, his name was Mr Howell. Mr Howell was a teacher who worked summers at Sewell. I remember him fondly, and often wondered what had become of him.
ReplyDeleteThose were the days, lots of 10 hour days and itchy skin...but I wouldn't trade those memories for anything!
I am a Sewell . . . grew up on the orchard until I was in my Senior Year of High School. I started working when I was 6 years old until the fall that the doors closed for good. I received the same lower wages for very hard work and long days, but the life lessons learned are ones that I am trying to impart on my Nephew and Niece, without the benefit of 12-hour days, 6 months out of the year with little to no summer vacations. The last summer provided many sad feelings for my family, but with Columbia crowding us out, there was not much we could do to survive. Neighbors complaining about the fruit tree spraying and children climbing thru the fence to fish were just some of the never-ending battles. David, you walked through my house, and if you saw my 74-year-old dad today, he looks only 10 years older than he did when you knew him, still a strong, massive figure of a man with dark glasses. Tony - great to hear your thoughts. Thanks for the memories. As always, the Orchard comprises many of my thoughts. Connie
ReplyDeleteMy wife was cleaning out the basement and came across one of the old Sewell's Orchard baskets. It is so old that the address on the basket is Oakland Mills Road, Ellicott City, MD, and the phone number has a 737 exchange. I can't throw it away, it must be a collectors item. My wife tells me that I am hoarding.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Columbia, moving in at the age of 4 in 1968 and I remember visiting Sewell's periodically. We even took an elementary school field trip there once.
I remember Sewell's so well! My family moved to Columbia in 1971 & the orchard seemed like the cornerstone of the town. Every week my dad would bring back huge baskets of produce (I think he still has some of them in his basement - they were sturdy!). One of the best memories of my life was working my way through a bushel of McIntosh apples from Sewell's while reading sci-fi books in the fall of 1980. The apples were delicious & juicy beyond belief. And, when we bought them, the teenage boy & girl at the store were making out in plain sight! As a child I thought, wild place...
ReplyDeleteI live in Sewell's Orchard now! Many of the current day residents are very interested in the farm history of our neighborhood, and love living here.
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