When I grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, we didn't have watermelons all year. It was a real treat to dive into a plump, juicy, watermelon on the Fourth of July. Daddy bought one each year at the little country store and put it into the freezer to get nice and cold.
On the Fourth of July, Mama packed a picnic basket with delicious goodies: a chocolate cake made from scratch, oatmeal cookies, celery (Daddy loved celery), corn-on-the-cob ( we called them roast nears in the mountains), white-runner beans, and of course; hotdogs and buns.
Daddy loaded the giant-sized watermelon in the back of our old black Ford and we headed to the Matheson Cove to Granddaddy and Ma Minnie's house for a cookout under the maple tree. Daddy sliced the watermelon with a butcher knife and asked Ma Minnie to fetch the salt shaker. Doctors would have a fit today if they caught folks shaking, shaking, shaking, salt on every piece of watermelon. Mama declared, "This is the best watermelon we've ever eaten." We all agreed and wolfed down the other goodies.
We cousins held a seed spitting contest. Harold (my brother) and I filled our mouths with seeds, lent back and spat as far as we could. Cousin Bobby had the contest down pat and always spat the seeds clear across the yard. Grandma Minnie gave the winner of the watermelon spitting contest an extra slice of Mama's rich chocolate cake.
Then we cousins headed down to Hyatt Mill Creek to swim. The boys swung on a grape vine across the deepest part of the creek and splashed into the ice cold waters. Harold brought his fishing pole and headed far from the crowd to catch catfish for our supper. He usually got a bunch and Uncle Ralph fried the fish and hushpuppies over and open fire for our supper.
When the sun set like a ruby over Shewbird Mountain, we called it a day and headed home. Back then we didn't have fireworks in the mountains, but enjoyed the lightning bugs putting on a night show as we drove home over the winding, dirt road.
I will always remember the Fourth of July celebration our family held deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A simple celebration filled with the love of family and grateful for our freedom.
by: Brenda Kay Ledford
Happy Fourth of July!
4 comments:
Such a beautiful memory, Brenda. Brought back good memories of our family gatherings on holidays. I love, love watermelon, and in July they were picked off the vines and we ate them every day. They were also fed to the hogs on the farm and boy, did they like them.
Watermelon season was short so we tried not to waste a day without a watermelon from Daddy's field. I hope you have a wonderful July 4th.
Oh, I love this. My granddaddy always raised watermelons for us kids at their farm in the country. My sister and I spent time there every summer and he timed the watermelons to ripen while we were there. Probably the happiest parts of my childhood were spent there. Thank you for reminding me.
We did not have watermelon much either, but we sure did have the homemade ice cream, and all my cousins had to take a turn churning. Janice
The picture of the watermelon looked so mouth-watering that I went to the market and bought a huge one for our family gathering. Now we can have a great 4th celebration too.BVLW
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