Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Watermelon Story

Farm families during the depression faced this truth -- if you don't grow it, you don't eat it.  We grew almost all of our food except for a few essentials like flour, for which we traded eggs.  We had goals of when we expected certain foods to be ready, including new potatoes and English peas by Mother's Day and watermelon by the 4th of July.  A priority crop for Dad was watermelons and a close second was cantaloupes. Preparing the ground for watermelons included spreading a wagon load of  fertilizer in early spring.  Rows were plowed about six feet wide to allow room for the vines to spread.  When cultivating the melons, vines were moved from one side to the other (a job for the youngsters) until watermelons became too large to move.

We were generally successful in growing both watermelons and cantaloupes and enjoyed them daily during July and August.  Some years Daddy would hitch a mule to a sled and about dawn would visit the patch, returning with a load of large and small melons.  The smaller melons were fed to the pigs but not until they were  broken opn and the hearts eaten.  As soon as he arrived from the field, the back porch screen door would go bang, bang, bang, as first one and then another and another of the younger kids would  join Dad in a pre-breakfast of watermelon.  

One year as usual our watermelon patch was located out of sight of any roads and paths through our fields, watermelon and sugar cane being too tempting to passers-by. This particular season we were keeping watch on one large melon that would be ripe and ready for eating on July Forth.  Alas, when we went to pick it, there was no melon, only the mark on the ground where it had lain.  A thief  evil beyond understanding had beaten us to it.  No melon for July Forth but a few days later we selected several promising melons. We eagerly cut one only to find it was no good, then a second and a third and they were all the same. Apparently the seed company, a reputable one still in business, had allowed watermelons to cross with citrons. A season was lost. We had one consolation; imagine the disappointment the thief had when he opened his stolen melon.Thankfully for us; we had a later and smaller patch to carry us through the summer.

One year we had such an abundance of watermelons, we decided to try to sell some.  A load of our largest melons was left on consignment with a store west of Minden on Highway 80.  The merchant would have no risk, paying us only for watermelons that he sold.  A few days later we visited the merchant and found he had sold every melon, but we didn't collect a dime. He said every person who bought a melon claimed the melons were not good and asked for his money back.  We knew the melons were good but we did not know who was lying, the merchant or the customers, or both. 

As far as I remember we never tried again to sell watermelons; people just did not have money.  I remember
a time we loaded the Model  A with watermelons and delivered them thoughout the community.  If no one was at home, we left the melons on the porch or by the front door.

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