Steven “Ricky” Phillips was the son of a military family.  They moved around from base to base quite a bit.  He lived in the Philippines for a number of years before moving to The United States of America.  His father was in the Air Force and met his mother in the Philippines while stationed at the Clark Air Base.  Ricky currently resides in Yucaipa, CA with his wife and two daughters.  He is a Branch Manager for JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.

I also remember a story my mother had told me about a fruit that she and I used to pick on the air base called Lanzones.  As we picked and ate the fruit, she taught be to pinch the fruit by the stem to open and peel the fruit.  She told me the story of how this began and why it continues as the process of eating this particular fruit.

A village in the Philippines not believed this fruit to be poisonous, but the beauty of the fruit often caused doubt to its poisonous nature.   The temptation would cause villagers to venture and try it despite the risks.  An old woman visited this village.  She needed food, water and shelter.  This village was helpful and let her stay as long as she needed and provided food and water.  The villagers had told her about the poisonous fruit.  She asked to see it, and when they showed it to her, she taught them how to pinch the fruit at the stem to render the fruit harmless and edible.  She proved it by eating one after another.  Ever since, the method of pinching and peeling this fruit has continued, and the story passed on along with it.