For years I have ran by, bike rode by, rollerbladed and even pogo-sticked my way through my neighborhood. It wasn’t until this past week, on one of my family’s routine after-lunch walks with our dog, that I noticed something peculiar on the ground in front of my neighbors yard. Their yard is always in phenomenal condition. Any day you could stage a photoshoot of their lawn. In fact, their entire house is always magazine worthy. Yet on this day it did not look so great. Perhaps because their lawn company has not been coming since the corona quarantine. This was an odd sight for my family to see as we have become accustomed (and sometimes jealous) of their picture-perfect grass.
At first glance, these little pinkish-red crunchy items reminded me of sea-urchin. In fact, they reminded me of the movie Baywatch when one of the characters almost steps on a sea-urchin, often denoted as the devil’s urchin for how painful it is.
But then, seeing these similar creatures on my neighbor’s yard (and overflowing into the road) made me quite curious. What on earth were these sea-urchin look-alikes doing in my neighbors yard? After showing my family these, we noticed that they must have fallen from my neighbor’s tree.
After googling “Trees that drop sea-urchin things” I came across my conclusion. These wannabe sea-urchins are actually called Sweet Gum Pods that fall out of trees. However, many people call them “gum drops”! They fall from the Sweet Gum Trees. I also learned that some people collect these to create decorative wreaths using nature’s finest.
English 110 Honors Spring 2020 
I love how you created a “creature” out of the Sweet Gum Pods. I also liked this post because I was always around these “creatures” when I was young but never thought to learn about them. They are there and we know they exist but sometimes we don’t care enough to learn about our surroundings. Good job!
-Romy Patel
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I loved the phrases you used to describe the “Gum Drops” such as “little pinkish-red crunchy items” and “sea-urchin look-alikes”. Language like this made the piece quite enjoyable to read as it brought the Sweet Gum Pods to life. I also like that you included the picture of people using these little pods to make wreaths, as I have seen these pods numerous times but would have never guessed that these little brown, spiky things could be made into a cute decoration! This is such a creative take on this assignment and I would have passed by the pods, considering them not interesting enough to write about, but you found a way to make them fascinating and even give them a personality of sorts. Great work!
Sarina Simpson
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I very much liked this post. I never knew what these were called for the longest time, and never stopped to question it. If anything they were simply a nuance that I avoided or kicked around when I saw it when I was younger. I never knew they were also used to make wreaths which I think is very interesting. Overall I was enticed by the aspect of it being anecdotal. Great job!
-Adam Bonar
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