Real Live Preacher

Near The Church

August 18, 2006 - 8:41am

Things found near Covenant Baptist Church, San Antonio Texas
Click for enlarged photo

Mescal Beans

rlp

rlp's blog

Photography

My misspent childhood - if

Submitted by Anonymous User on August 18, 2006 - 9:28am.

My misspent childhood - if you rub the little brown dimple part back and forth very fast on the sidewalk, you can heat it up so that it actually burns when you touch it to someone else's skin. As I recall, it does NOT leave a mark. We called 'em hotbeans.

Heartforyouth, an expat of San Antonio

My wife grew up in San

Submitted by rlp on August 18, 2006 - 9:52am.

My wife grew up in San Antonio and said the same thing. Children call them hot beans, or at least they did when you two were young.

I've tried rubbing them on the sidewalk and burning myself. It works amazingly well. It burns quite intensely, but only for a short instant until your skin cools it down. No marks left. But scary for children, which is probably why they run around doing it.

Note to others: No connection to mescaline. These are the seeds of the Mountain Laurel plant. But they are quite pretty, plentiful around here, and have been known historically as mescal beans.

Haha! I had completely

Submitted by Lisa P on August 18, 2006 - 10:16am.

Haha! I had completely forgotten about hot beans. As an Air Force brat, I lived in San Antonio for quite a few years off and on during my childhood. You just took me back years.

Aaaahhhh...memories of my

Submitted by PastorBluejeans on August 18, 2006 - 12:37pm.

Aaaahhhh...memories of my misspent childhood. Burning the peejabbers out of my best friend Mark and his returning the favor. My mother loved mountain "law" (southern pronunciation of Laurel) and there were lots of those little seeds to play with. Oh .. a Mockingbird can fling one of those little things and they hurt like heck when they bounce off your punkin head. Thanks for another smile

i wonder who - or what -

Submitted by hughman on August 18, 2006 - 8:08pm.

i wonder who - or what - left these?

i'm rooting for the mockingbirds.

I love the beautiful, craggy

Submitted by Anonymous User on August 19, 2006 - 2:20pm.

I love the beautiful, craggy stump they're lying on!
For the record, I've never burned myself with a bean.

(Pooey, I was accidentally

Submitted by Wandering Willow on August 19, 2006 - 2:21pm.

(Pooey, I was accidentally anonymous, above. It was just me.)

http://blogs.salon.com/0003947
www.wanderingwillowblog.blogspot.com