all my life i have felt a little special having a meyer lemon tree in my family.  

boys would pick them to eat at the corner while they waited for the school bus; 

they were so sweet, they could eat them like oranges.

when relatives or friends of the family would visit, 

my dad would hold out a paper grocery bag filled to the brim with lemons and say 

"hey, can you use a few lemons?" while the rest of us would roll our eyes.

when my father was selling produce to bay area restaurants, 

we heard that Chez Panisse was buying our lemons.

my mother often reminds me of a woman i lived with

who, after getting one bowl full of lemons from my care package from home, 

told me that she was running low on them and why didn't i look concerned.

only recently did i know that our lemons even had a special name-they were different than store bought lemons, but i didn't know exactly why.  

now that they are fashionable, i, of course, feel a little superior knowing that meyer lemons are not all created equal.  the small hard version we find on the east coast has no resemblance to the big, fat soft, thick skinned variety that grows in front of our house.

but now the house is empty and ready to be sold, so this batch of lemons is the last.  sadly, it took me this long to decide that i actually like lemon meringue pie.