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done. Thus the saying "too wet to plow" came into use, wet ground
just can't be plowed. Working with soil and the plants it produced
would make anyone realize that a Higher Being was our Creator. What a
pretty sight to look across a field of corn about hip high, while
plowing it and watch the wind blow the leaves gently. When plowing
the various crops we planted late in the spring it was fun sometimes
to kick off the shoes and plow barefooted. Occasionally Uncle Curtis
would come home for a few days during plowing time and he would get
out there and try his hand at following the horse or mule for a
while. Even the fact he did not do it very often he could still plow
a pretty good furrow. He didn't try the shoes off bit though. The
soft cool earth felt good to the toes, but I hoped there were no big
sticks to stub my still tender toes on. That would hurt!

While manual labor farm work is very hard and tiring, there are many
side benefits, there were certain pleasures that came with farm life.
Many of these pleasures were looked forward to with anxious
anticipation, the first watermelons or grapes of the season or the
peanuts were finally ready for digging for a peanut boiling.

The watermelons and cantaloupes came first. We would keep going to
the field everyday from early Summer looking for signs the melons
were now beginning to get ripe. Many times the first ones picked
would not be as ripe as it should have been for peak flavor, what the
heck we had waited for the last nine or ten months for their return,
now they were there. Then we could enjoy their sweet juicy flavor for
about two months. We grew two varieties of watermelons, Stone
Mountain or Cannon Ball a large round dark green melon and the
Rattlesnake a long light and dark green striped melon. They didn't
have straight lines but a jagged edge line. We used everything of the
melon except the popping and splitting sound when cutting and the
very outer rind.

When you cut into a ripe cool melon it will pop and the rind will
split, hopefully in a straight line. City folks will cut one in the
kitchen, cutting small slices and placing on a plate and use a table
knife and daintily cut small bites and eat it as though it was Caviar
or some other fancy delicacy. NO, NO, NO a hundred times NO. That is
not the way Southerner's eat it. The best place to eat one is on the
outside, you place the melon on a bench, bring out a big butcher
knife cut it lengthwise into two equal sides. Then cut big thick
slices, select a slice, add salt if desired, use both hands and pick
it up and eat right from the slice. Naturally you could not wear a
longsleeve shirt or coat and enjoy watermelon, we are talking about
good ole country watermelon eating. A lot of people would eat only
the heart, they didn't want to contend with

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