Sweet Miami: A whole 'nother world.

An old tradition remains alive:

ONLY in DADE on X: "Teamwork makes the dream work! 🥭🪜😂| #ONLYinDADE #Mango https://t.co/Hx04B8s57b" / X

People love mangoes. I particularly do not care for them but I did not mind that one of my neighbors had two beautiful big trees that attracted birds, iguanas and provided our house with a fantastic shade from the tropical sun at certain times.

Unfortunately and as seen in the video, it also attracts people without shame and honor.

Mind you, mango trees deliver and unholy amount of fruit, more than you could eat unless you have a family of 12 and relatives. Most of the tree owners I know loved to share the fruit with those who did not have trees of their own or donate them to local food banks. In some cases, specially if the home owners were elderly, you could try asking them if you could harvest the fruits and more than likely you would be given permission and take a bunch of them with you provided you left the majority for the homeowner.

And then you have the scum shown in the above video. Not only they are stealing fruit that does not belong to them, but damaging the tree while at it which is impolite as hell. When we moved to our home in Miami-Dade county, one of the first things I knew was that my neighbors were elderly, the husband in poor health and sometimes a couple misguided youths would jump inside their property and get mangoes without permission. I was upset when I found that out and one day, I heard the unmistakable sounds of branches being torn and mangoes dropping to the ground from height. I went to the section of chain-link fence separating the properties and saw unknown youths had climbed on the trees and were after the fruit. I politely addressed them pointing out their behavior was unacceptable. I also asked them collect and clean the broken branches while leaving the illegally harvested mangoes behind. They did so a very humbly promised never to return and they never did.

I cannot claim that just my verbal charm was a contributing factor in convincing them, a visual enhancement laying against the fence courtesy of O.F. Mossberg & Sons may have also assisted in their behavior modification.

Small note: When you hear or read a South Floridian mentioning Miami, it does not mean the City of Miami proper (in yellow) but more than likely encompassing the whole Miami-Dade county. It is easier to say Miami that trying to explain that there are about a dozen small cities in the county with names probably never heard off across the Georgia state line and you live in one of them or in an unincorporated area nearby.