Day 10: Childhood Memory

I truly think I would say... I would re-live my childhood again! There are so many good memories I have. One being summertime melons... I am really lazy and didn't feel like figuring out our new printer/scanner so I took a picture of a picture, but I think you will get the idea.


A long time back my Grandpa lived on a farm, with my Grandma and their 7 children. He named their farm "Peaceful Meadows" all though I do believe it was anything but peaceful- you should hear our family nights! Unless those 7 children were tucked in bed sleeping, then it was peaceful :) But then again, those boys had everything from pet dogs to pet coons! My Grandpa started a "Truck Patch" in other words a very large area in a field to grow melons and sweet corn. Many Many memories were made in those "Truck Patches"

Very blurry - but this is me at 5 yrs old with my dad.

Grandpa & Austin

Every summer we would go out and plant the seeds, and he would tell us how to do it just right with so many seeds in a "hill". Then time would come and Grandpa would round us all together with hoes and rakes and we would go weed the melons! Then more time would pass (and we would go "weeding" a few times) and then he would get us together again to go pick melons! He would tell us how to know when they are just right - they would break off their stem, and smell amazing.


Then he would sell them up town in the back of his cute little trailer, he would never try to get money out of people, he was the opposite- he was more likely to stick an extra melon in their bundle as they loaded them into the car! He always asked us grand kids to come help him sell! This was the highlight! Because he would always give you some money for helping usually more than you really deserved and he was conveniently located by the gas station & dollar general!

He would teach us along with learning customer service, how to tell people the best way to pick out the good melons-knocking and listening for a hollow sound on the watermelons and smelling of the stem on the "musk" melons (aka cantaloupe) He also taught us how to count money and give correct change, and most of all he quietly taught us his countenance by his example and the things he didn't say made him to be the most wonderful Grandpa!


Every year he would want pictures of the kids next to some of his biggest melon finds in the patch.




A lot of his kids now have melon "patches" in his memory. We miss him here on this earth- someone solid to go to for anything whether it be a question about raising melons or just a plain ol' question. He was loved by so many people and his legacy still lives on to this day. He definitely left some big shoes to fill but his example taught us how to fill them.