Back in middle school my mom and stepdad took me to a rather free spirited celebration of something I had never heard of. At the festival I got to hold an albino python courtesy of a humane society raising awareness. There were many games and foods with a flavor I could not identify but still enjoyed. During the end of our walk through Johnson’s woods I learned about something unique to Ohio. I learned that Ohio is one of the few natural homes to the paw paw tree. The pawpaw tree bears a small green fruit that looks similar to a symmetrical pear called the pawpaw fruit. These supposedly taste like a mango-banana-citrus combo. When I told my mom about it I found out about an event called the pawpaw festival. More interestingly I learned that I had actually been to one.
Thinking about it now I grew a better appreciation for the presence of the festival. For those who live in Ohio you might agree with me that there’s not a lot of things that make Ohio any different from other states. But knowing about the pawpaw festival made me a little bit more proud of Ohio.