LOMITA, Calif. — In the small South Bay city of Lomita lies an abundance of neighborly charm. As holidays near, neighbors can be found creating shamrock and scavenger hunts for teddy bears and other things. At one point, neighbors donated the fruit from their fruit trees with high school students' help to share with the whole community when grocery shelves were being emptied.
Someone in the community found a new way to bring everyone together by decorated potatoes in random places for people to find.
At first, it was one potato, then two potatoes, then three before Christie Cammaressi's family realized someone had been placing them in the neighborhood for people to see.
"A couch potato means like you're being lazy. You're doing nothing," Cammaressi explained to one of her daughters as they continued their walk. The girl laughed.
For the last three weeks, Cammaressi and the team head out on walks searching for more to see. Despite being confused, initially.
"The first time we saw the potato's we were a little weirded out because it's a potato right, and it was just sitting out on my front lawn," Cammaressi said.
They found small potatoes that had written messages like "Are you buttering me up," "Couch," "Bug," and some that seemed like playfully decorated potatoes coated in gold coloring or with a happy face. As they saw more, they began to keep their eyes peeled in hopes of taking part in the new community trend.
"The more we came across, the more little cute messages they had on them, and it kind of gave us a reason to get out of the house and go for a walk," Cammaressi said.
They pick up what they find and hide it for others to see. But they still had no idea who had been behind the "spudden" tots in the community — that continues to remain a mystery.
"I think it's a cute idea. I like that they are just trying to spread some positivity," Cammaressi said.
So, to the potato artist yet to be seen, Cammaressi and some neighbors said they want to say thank you for the "a-peeling" tots and laughter shared.