Page 61 - barefoot-in-the-sand-remembering-the-waning-days-of-the-hopewell-community-(1998)-bruce-c-gragg

Barefoot In The Sand: Remembering the Waning Days of the Hopewell Community (1998) Bruce C. Gragg 57/123

SUMMER FUN WITH WATERMELONS

Papa kept a lot of hogs in the river swamp behind our house about
half to three-quarter mile away as the crow flies. Actually he raised
pure breds, "Piney Woods Rooters" was the breed, some people call
them "Razorbacks." He also kept a trap hog pen in working condition,
so when he needed to catch a hog he could bait it and catch it. Many
times when fishing that part of the river we would park the wagon
under a tree near the pen. Often when we went fishing near by, he
would take some corn call them up and feed them, just to keep them
from going totally wild. Two or three times during the summer he
would hitch the horse to the wagon and we would go to the watermelon
patch and fill it with knotty and sun baked back melons, back at the
house he would park it under a pecan tree until the next afternoon.
If any Walker kids were available they would go with us to feed the
hogs at the river. In a clearing under trees Papa would call the
hogs, we threw a few of the worst looking melons to get them started
eating. Then we would pick a "good looking melon" throw it overboard,
it bursted on the ground, we'd jump out and beat the hogs to it and
dig out the heart. Actually here you don't just burst a melon, when
you throw it overboard you want it BUST open. For it to burst sounds
too classy, and since you are eating with the hogs there is no need
to have much real class. You are here just to outwit the hogs and
grab a watermelon heart or two. If it didn't taste good, we climbed
back in the wagon and picked another. These hogs were not exactly
tame, actually they were a bit on the wild side, after all they lived
in the woods and didn't appreciate having some kids compete with them
for their food. Papa usually knew which ones had a tendency to be
more vicious, and he would warn us not to get too close to them. We
still didn't want to get too close to a hog and his food, they will
bite the hand that feeds them if you are not very careful. When the
wagon was unloaded then it was time to wash off the juice, swimming
here we'd come. Actually we did not do a lot of swimming, but a lot
of just horsing around and splashing water and getting cooled off a
bit. Now to us, that was a true farm summer late after noon. The hogs
thought it was a pretty good treat also. Not to forget the regular
late afternoon farm chores, we would all too soon have to head back
home. So many kids growing up, even when we were, did not have a
opportunity to enjoy a good country life such as ours, they missed so
much and they do not know it. Matter of fact our own children when
they were growing up never had many of the advantages we were
provided. Yes, we gave them love lots of love and got involved with
their activities, but they didn't grow up surrounded by nature as I
was fortunate to have done. While we did what we could it still
didn't replace the farm life experiences I grew up with.

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