This is a story that we wrote for Cody, Patrick and Bryce, our grandsons. We thought that you all might enjoy it also.

Who Am I?

When I was just a wee little people and had my first birthday I was about the size of a kernel of corn. I was green all over, and I was hiding under a nice big Palo Verde tree. My Palo Verde tree was like a nurse maid to me. It shaded me from the fierce sun in the Sonoran Desert. It also protects me from the frost of the cold desert nights. Some of my family was not so lucky. They germinated out in the open and they didn’t survive. It is like a million to one that I made it to my first birthday.

By my fifth birthday I was nearly the size of a ping-pong ball. Even if you found me under my nurse bush you wouldn’t want to play with me. I have lots of thorns to protect me. By my tenth birthday, I was still only the size of a golf ball.

Like many teenagers I really started to shoot up. By the time I was fifteen I was almost a foot tall. When I was about 35 years old I was getting to be taller than my nurse tree, and then I began to put on a crown of white flowers every May. I could produce millions of seeds in these flowers, but I needed the help of the night flying bats, birds and insects to pollinate my flowers.

About the time I turned 75 I decided I needed to grow some arms. I can grow more flowers on the tops of my arms and that way I can produce millions more seeds. Two arms were not enough for me. I grew more and more arms and by the time I was a hundred and fifty years old I had eleven arms. Now I am fifty feet tall and I expect to live for another fifty years. Perhaps when you grow up and come to the Sonoran Desert you will visit me on the side of Ajo Mountain. I can’t move, I weigh about eight tons so you will have to come visit me.

Some people come into the desert in the middle of summer when my fruit ripen. They like to knock my ripe fruit off and make jellies out of them. These people have lived in the desert since before I can remember. They tell their children stories about me and how I and all of my family growing on this mountain look like people standing in the moonlight.

Who am I? You can find the letters of my name by writing down the first letter of each word in the next sentence. “Soon all good used axles run out.” To pronounce my name say the “gu” like a “w” and say Sah-WAH-roe.

Below are  some pictures of me.

This was written by Papa and Nana Dinsmore. We hope you have enjoyed the story.