Remembering summer on the farm

Hot, hot and very dry July ended Sunday but August hasn't offered any relief, with the official temperature in Shreveport reaching 107 degrees Monday.  Usually we can expect hot weather to continue in August until late, when some cooling often gives us a break.

My dad claimed July was the best month of the 12.   Of course, part of his reason was his birthday was July 16.  His favorite fruits -- watermelons. cantelopes, and figs were at their most plentiful and the garden would have a bountiful and varied supply of vegetables.  We were not vegetarians but we ate very little meat in the summer and did not miss it.

Our cash crops, cotton and corn, were  "laid by" (no longer cultivated) by early August, potato vines covered the rows, and harvesting, except for haying, was days or weeks away.  Some people took it easy for a couple of weeks in August.  Our cousins who worked in adjacent fields would spend a week with their relatives in Arkansas.  Other people might rest but Daddy always had jobs lined up for us -- putting metal roofing on the old barn, building a new chicken house, or some similar project.  You haven't lived until you've  handled metal roofing in 100 degree weather.

August was the month for revivals at the Methodist and Baptist churches. If our parents didn't go to  the Baptist church some night, we boys  would walk. Sometimes the services would go on so long we would be exhausted, needing our sleep. One night at Antioch Baptist Church, a call for converts was made. After this, people were asked to rededicate themselves. The choir and the congregation were singing --"Just as I am, without  one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come  to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come."  The minister announced that we would keep singing and the service would not be dismissed a long as anyone came.  Just as a verse was almost over and we were sighing with relief, someone would get up and go to the front.  It was a late night  for three boys who had to start work before dawn the next morning.   ( Note.  We sang this song Sunday night and it brought back this memory.)