Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves
Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share
Speaker 1: my stories and the country skills that will help you
Speaker 1: beat the system. This Country Life is proudly presented as
Speaker 1: part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best
Speaker 1: outdoor podcast the airways have to offer. All right, friends,
Speaker 1: pull you up a chair or drop that tailgate. I
Speaker 1: think I got a thing or two and teach you watermelons.
Speaker 1: It's watermelon time and I live in watermelon country. Judging
Speaker 1: by a little research that I did, a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of us do now where I live. You can't chunk
Speaker 1: a yard dart in the air this time of year
Speaker 1: and not have it come down and stable watermelon or
Speaker 1: somebody eating one. So this week, as we continue to sell,
Speaker 1: I break the two hundred and forty seventh year of
Speaker 1: our nation telling England to kiss our behind. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about three different varieties. How to pick a ripe
Speaker 1: one salt or no salt? Why is that even a question?
Speaker 1: And seedless watermelons? What kind of witchcraft is that? Hang
Speaker 1: on to the end and you're gonna get some bonus footage.
Speaker 1: The first I'm gonna tell you a story. I think
Speaker 1: about some things and I ponder about others. The difference
Speaker 1: in my thinking and pondering is when I think about algebra,
Speaker 1: which is seldom I'm forced to ponder about who decided
Speaker 1: that fractions weren't hard enough without adding letters to them?
Speaker 1: Adding letters together is called spelling, not math. Now, what
Speaker 1: in the world does algebra have to do with watermelons?
Speaker 1: Not one thing. It's the issue of pondering. So, in
Speaker 1: the grand scheme of things, is stealing a watermelon a crime?
Speaker 1: Answers and obvious, Yes, of course it is. But to
Speaker 1: a couple of high school boys that looked a whole
Speaker 1: lot like me in one of my lifelong best friends,
Speaker 1: Greg Hayes, we decided the risk was worth the reward.
Speaker 1: I believe the mere thought of the sweet nectar of
Speaker 1: the watermelon is the catalyst that enticed two young boys
Speaker 1: to demonstrate lawlessness and mayhem. I admitted, I'm a watermelon addict,
Speaker 1: and I always have been. There was a local farmer
Speaker 1: not far from town that grew some of the best
Speaker 1: watermelons in the county. No different were these melons than
Speaker 1: the ones that we grew on our farm. So why
Speaker 1: would I be stealing watermelons when we had them at home?
Speaker 1: You ask, Well, that's a good question, and it brings
Speaker 1: me back to that pondering thing. Regardless, this man raised
Speaker 1: a lot of tomatoes, peas, corns, beans, and cows, just
Speaker 1: like we did. He was a very nice man, and
Speaker 1: he could have killed me and Greg one night, and
Speaker 1: we're both glad he didn't. The second night of the
Speaker 1: watermelon pillaging started out all right. The farmer's watermelon patch
Speaker 1: had provided a couple of sweet offerings on the previous
Speaker 1: night to a couple of boys that were hanging around
Speaker 1: with their friends up town with nothing better to do.
Speaker 1: It seemed only prudent that we should return for another sampling.
Speaker 1: Me and Greg had just rolled a couple of mediums
Speaker 1: up to the fence next to the road, where he said,
Speaker 1: look at that watermelon up yonder under that night light.
Speaker 1: Sweet mother. It was huge. It was a perfect specimen
Speaker 1: of a watermelon. It looked like it weighed fifty pounds.
Speaker 1: It was one of the biggest black diamond watermelons I'd
Speaker 1: ever seen in my life. I'm not sure that that
Speaker 1: light shining upon it wasn't coming from heaven instead of
Speaker 1: the night light. And what of this night light and
Speaker 1: huge watermelon that lay beneath it? How could something that
Speaker 1: is so blatantly obvious now not look like the huge
Speaker 1: rat trap that it was? Then? Now I could see
Speaker 1: me and Greg rolling back up to the cool side
Speaker 1: of the sun, driving in with this monster, where we
Speaker 1: would gather folks up and share our sweet, ill gotten game.
Speaker 1: It was ten o'clock and the farmer was no doubt
Speaker 1: in bed, none the wiser to the hooliganism that was
Speaker 1: taking place a quarter mile from his house. Next to
Speaker 1: his barn under that big night light. We eased up
Speaker 1: to the watermelon that all future watermelons would come to
Speaker 1: be judged, and gently caressed its cool, dark skin. My
Speaker 1: mind was racing, my heart was racing, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden Greg was racing. Greg was racing. When Where's
Speaker 1: he going? I was confused, so I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: I was wondering or pondering at this point. I stood
Speaker 1: there and I watched him cover the one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty yards of watermelon patch in what seemed like five seconds.
Speaker 1: Now Greg was built for speed, and he held the
Speaker 1: state record high jump for quite a while, and with
Speaker 1: one fluid motion, he jumped that five strand bab wir
Speaker 1: fence that we had crawled under just a few minu before.
Speaker 1: I heard him. When he hit the gravel road on
Speaker 1: the other side. The sound of his shoes on that
Speaker 1: gravel sounded like an antique stopwatch. As he and the
Speaker 1: racket his feet were making faded into the dark night,
Speaker 1: out of sight and out of hearing. Then, just as
Speaker 1: that night light had bathed that black diamond and glowing glory,
Speaker 1: I had an epiphany. Maybe something was wrong. Maybe Greg
Speaker 1: was running because he was scared of something while I
Speaker 1: looked around on the ground. Maybe it was a snake,
Speaker 1: Maybe it was a dog I didn't see. Maybe it
Speaker 1: was that man standing in the hall of that bar
Speaker 1: and holding the shotgun. Yep, that's probably it. I commenced
Speaker 1: at putting as much distance between myself and the business
Speaker 1: end of that shotgun as I could, as the Good
Speaker 1: Lord allowed me to do. I got to that fence
Speaker 1: and successfully hurtled four of the five strands. The fifth
Speaker 1: one tore the left leg almost completely out of my Overall,
Speaker 1: I had never run that fast in my life, and
Speaker 1: up to that point, i'd never had it, And when
Speaker 1: a nice old farmer uncorked a couple of shots that
Speaker 1: I assumed were directly at me, but I'm sure now
Speaker 1: they weren't. I found a hidden gear that I didn't
Speaker 1: know I had, and I could have really used it
Speaker 1: crossing that fence anyway. I bet that farmer told that
Speaker 1: story many times, and I would have loved to have
Speaker 1: watched it from his perspective. He taught me a lesson.
Speaker 1: If it looks too good to be true, you better
Speaker 1: believe it is. But at least we'd gotten away without
Speaker 1: being identified. No harm, no foul. Lesson learned. Greg and
Speaker 1: I worked at the co op, the local farm store
Speaker 1: together after school and in the summertime, and prior to
Speaker 1: the incident, we had always loaded that farmer's feed and
Speaker 1: stuff when he came as fast as we could, and
Speaker 1: would stop what we were doing to do it because
Speaker 1: we thought so much of him. A few days after
Speaker 1: that incident, the store manager called Greg and I to
Speaker 1: his office, saying someone had left us something. We went
Speaker 1: up front and there set that watermelon that we tried
Speaker 1: to steal a few nights before. We didn't know what
Speaker 1: to say. We just stood there staring, expecting the police
Speaker 1: to show up to fingerprint us and haul us off
Speaker 1: to prison. Store manager called the farmer by name and said,
Speaker 1: he said to tell you boys, thank you for always
Speaker 1: taking care of him, and anytime you wanted a watermelon,
Speaker 1: just come by and get one. He usually goes to
Speaker 1: bed about ten thirty. Now I knew he wanted us
Speaker 1: to know that he called us, he knew who we were,
Speaker 1: he knew we were good boys, and he wasn't mad.
Speaker 1: And the lesson we learned a few nights before was
Speaker 1: cemented with that revelation. Like I said, he was a
Speaker 1: real nice man. And that's just how that is what
Speaker 1: the rush Springs Oklahoma, Weatherford, Texas, Green River, Utah, Beardstown, Illinois, Naples, Texas, Cordell, Georgia,
Speaker 1: and Hope, Arkansas all have in common. They each call
Speaker 1: themselves the watermelon capital of the world. Now, instead of
Speaker 1: us laying these places out all side by side and
Speaker 1: comparing the measurables of each claim of qualifications and getting
Speaker 1: folks stirred up enough to start duking it out, We're
Speaker 1: just going to cut through that waste of time and
Speaker 1: declare Hope as the real champion Hope is located in
Speaker 1: the natural state of Arkansas, and it's only a coincidence
Speaker 1: that that's where I'm from and live. This was an
Speaker 1: unbiased culmination of thought and research based on It's a
Speaker 1: shorter drive for someone from Hope to catch me out
Speaker 1: somewhere and invite me to join them in some pugilistic endeavor. Remember, kids,
Speaker 1: discretion is the better part of valor. Now y'all know,
Speaker 1: I'm kidding, not really, And I seriously doubt that I
Speaker 1: could tell the difference. Yes, I could between a watermelon
Speaker 1: growing in Hope as compared to one in Beardstown. And
Speaker 1: I'd hate for the folks to send me free watermelons. No,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't from those places for me to try. But
Speaker 1: what kind of watermelon? Did y'all know? There are over
Speaker 1: three hundred types of watermelons? That's right, three hundred now
Speaker 1: my mind, there's only two kinds of watermelon, those I
Speaker 1: have it and those I'm fixing to. To me, they're
Speaker 1: all good, but just like a lot of things, some
Speaker 1: are just better than others. We raised Charleston Gray's, which
Speaker 1: are very sweet and the outside is a light green color.
Speaker 1: The Jewilie variety were another type that we grew and
Speaker 1: are probably what a lot of folks identifies what a
Speaker 1: watermelon looks like, with the light and the dark green stripes.
Speaker 1: They're all sweet, but my favorite has always been the
Speaker 1: black diamond. Just a few minutes ago, I related how
Speaker 1: my black diamond watermelon is session nearly sent me and
Speaker 1: my buddy Greg on a lifelong crime spree that could
Speaker 1: have started that very night had we not been shocked
Speaker 1: back in in reality by a bob wire fence and
Speaker 1: a double barrel shotgun. Now, my mama was partial to
Speaker 1: yellow meaated watermelons. It's been said that they're even sweeter
Speaker 1: and can have a hint of a honey flavor. I've
Speaker 1: ed them both, and I really couldn't testify to that,
Speaker 1: but man, they're good. Yellow or red watermelons originated on
Speaker 1: the Dark Continent and have been around for five thousand years.
Speaker 1: That makes me kind of sad thinking about all the
Speaker 1: ones I missed. Instead of diving into all three hundred
Speaker 1: plus different varieties, let's talk briefly about the three I mentioned.
Speaker 1: They seem to be the most popular in my vast
Speaker 1: personal experience that I've had eaten them, and the minimal
Speaker 1: amount of research I did in preparation for this episode. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't mean that I was slacking off, but these
Speaker 1: three are like the biscuits of the watermelon world to me,
Speaker 1: and the rest, well, they're just the gravy developed by
Speaker 1: the US Department of Agriculture. And you guessed. Charleston, South Carolina,
Speaker 1: a coastal city where a reported smallpox outbreak erupted in
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety eight, followed by an earthquake in sixteen ninety nine.
Speaker 1: Those folks couldn't catch a break, but they held on
Speaker 1: until the late nineteen forties when Gray came along and
Speaker 1: it was love at first bite. I would like to
Speaker 1: point out the fact that while we were fresh from
Speaker 1: taking Germany and Japan out behind the wood shed and
Speaker 1: teaching them how to play well with others, and instead
Speaker 1: of setting on our collective behinds and taking a break,
Speaker 1: we got busy making watermelons. The gold in creating the
Speaker 1: Charleston Gray was to make a more disease resistant variety,
Speaker 1: and by the nineteen fifties it had become the most
Speaker 1: popular grown watermelon, both commercially and in families garden in
Speaker 1: the nation. Mission accomplished. Did I mention that watermelon is
Speaker 1: good for you. Check this out. Watermelons are one of
Speaker 1: the healthiest fruits you can eat. Their low calorie and
Speaker 1: a great source of vitamins A, B, six, and C,
Speaker 1: which helped strengthen your immune system and your brain function,
Speaker 1: and that ain't never hurt nobody. They're also made up
Speaker 1: of more than ninety percent water, so they'll help keep
Speaker 1: you hydrated and refreshed during the hot summertime. I recommend
Speaker 1: stretching after eating a big bait of them, especially if
Speaker 1: it's just before retiring for the evening. If you stretch
Speaker 1: your legs good, you're not as liable to pull the
Speaker 1: muscle jumping up in the middle of the night. Hit
Speaker 1: the litter box before you wet the bed. They don't
Speaker 1: call them peach chunks for nothing. Then there's Leesburg, Florida.
Speaker 1: It was nineteen sixty three, and those boys just down
Speaker 1: the road at Cape Canaveral were snatching up all the
Speaker 1: good press because all the talk was about going to
Speaker 1: the moon. Meanwhile, the good folks at the Florida Agricultural
Speaker 1: Experiment Station were celebrating the development of the Jubilee watermelon,
Speaker 1: described as deliciously sweet and bumping the scales at forty pounds,
Speaker 1: the Jubilee would take your taste buds out of this
Speaker 1: world and you never had to leave the planet. This
Speaker 1: springs us to my favorite and I'm ashamed to say
Speaker 1: that when I sat down to gather up the end
Speaker 1: information for this episode and I listed my three favorite varieties,
Speaker 1: the first two in no particular order, but I knew
Speaker 1: I would end the list with this one. That I
Speaker 1: was totally unaware that a fella by the name of
Speaker 1: Melville Dylan developed a black diamond watermelon in the great
Speaker 1: state of Arkansas. I kid you not, I had no clue.
Speaker 1: The thing about them is they can get to one
Speaker 1: hundred pounds and be just as sweet and good as
Speaker 1: one way in fifteen. I'm sure that and the relationship
Speaker 1: of us growing them is what makes them my favorite,
Speaker 1: because I honestly doubt I could tell the difference in
Speaker 1: a blindfold taste test between the three of them. Now,
Speaker 1: Clayton Newkelem and I were on a recent trip down
Speaker 1: to Mississippi and on the way home we got to
Speaker 1: talking about this episode and clay told me and I quote,
Speaker 1: it is my goal during watermelon season to eat one
Speaker 1: every day. I felt this I told them about a
Speaker 1: five day period last summer that Alexis and I ate
Speaker 1: four whole ones by our cells. It was what we
Speaker 1: did every day when we got home from work, go
Speaker 1: to the back patio, cut the fan on, and bust
Speaker 1: the watermelon. At an earlier point of Clay Bowl's existence,
Speaker 1: and before he became the bear grease Guru, he told
Speaker 1: me about working in the produce section of Walmart, and
Speaker 1: he claims to be a connoisseur of watermelons. He says
Speaker 1: he can identify and differentiate the sound of a ripe
Speaker 1: watermelon as good or better than anyone else. I like
Speaker 1: to think that I can do that too. But it
Speaker 1: was his passionate dissertation on the subtle nuances of that
Speaker 1: sounds that they make when thump that he made me
Speaker 1: realize that my brother of the Bear was playing on
Speaker 1: a different level than the rest of us. He is,
Speaker 1: without a doubt, a Tier one watermelon thumper. So what's
Speaker 1: the best way to tell onns ripe? Do the old
Speaker 1: thump test, But you need to know what you're listening for.
Speaker 1: The best way I can describe what Clay said is
Speaker 1: to listen for a deep, resonating sound when you thump it.
Speaker 1: If it's a dull thud with no resonance, that joker
Speaker 1: is probably too ripe, and that means mealy. And when
Speaker 1: they get mealy, you take a bite of it, and
Speaker 1: it's like having a mild mouthful of semisweet fine ground
Speaker 1: corn meal. It is not pleasurable. If the sound is
Speaker 1: more high pitched, then it's not ready yet. If you're
Speaker 1: absolutely doing this on your own, it might take you
Speaker 1: a few to get the hang of it, but you will.
Speaker 1: If the thumping doesn't do it for you, then you
Speaker 1: find the field spot of where it was setting on
Speaker 1: the ground on the bottom. It's part of the watermelon
Speaker 1: that was in the dirt. A riping will have a
Speaker 1: butter colored yellow field spot. One that's not ready yet
Speaker 1: will be much lighter in color or even white. The
Speaker 1: skin should be firm and not the least bit mushy
Speaker 1: or soft. That watermelon is ready for the compost. We
Speaker 1: talked about all that on our ride the other day,
Speaker 1: and I sat in awe of his tails of watermelon
Speaker 1: knowledge until he told me he put salt on it. Me.
Speaker 1: I'm not bold enough to tell The folks from Charleston,
Speaker 1: South Carolina, Leesburg Florida, or most especially our very own
Speaker 1: our Kans and brother Melville Dylan that what they made
Speaker 1: wasn't good enough, but I could fix it, I simply
Speaker 1: adding salt, No, sir, not me. So why do people
Speaker 1: do it well? People say sprinkling watermelon with salt is
Speaker 1: traditionally a Southern thing, Like we ain't getting blamed for
Speaker 1: enough stuff already. Supposedly the opposed and flavor brings out
Speaker 1: the sweetness of a fresh watermelon, and somehow it makes
Speaker 1: it taste even sweeter. I'm gonna have to ponder on that.
Speaker 1: But some folks like it that way and that's cool.
Speaker 1: Just don't salt the whole thing before we start eating.
Speaker 1: That could cause some consequences and repercussions. Just share it
Speaker 1: and let everyone have it the way they want it.
Speaker 1: But man, if there was ever a food that was
Speaker 1: meant to be shared, it's a watermelon. I went coon
Speaker 1: hunting a few nights ago on the fourth of July
Speaker 1: with my friends Michael Roseman and Noel Goodwin, just an
Speaker 1: unplanned Arkansas summer coon hunt. When we caught the nighttime
Speaker 1: temperature below ninety degrees, loaded the dogs, and an hour
Speaker 1: later we were standing in the white river bottoms, sweating
Speaker 1: spread skew the dope on one another and wishing it
Speaker 1: was fall. The dogs were struggling to find the track
Speaker 1: because the bandidos don't stir much when it's hot either,
Speaker 1: and we were all rethinking our decision to go hunting.
Speaker 1: And then I pulled out a medium sized watermelon I
Speaker 1: brought in the drink cooler that I didn't tell them about,
Speaker 1: and it was all smiles. Michael said, I don't care
Speaker 1: if these dogs do tree. We fitn't eat this watermelon.
Speaker 1: And we did and it was cold and it was
Speaker 1: good and it was seedless. So where in the world
Speaker 1: did that come from? Well, I'll tell you. The trick is,
Speaker 1: they crossed two watermelons that are genetically different enough that
Speaker 1: the resulting hybrid seed is sterile. So the seed's created
Speaker 1: by the cross or real seeds, but they grow into
Speaker 1: plants that cannot produce their own seed. Does that sound familiar, Well,
Speaker 1: if you're a bear grease follower of any measure, it
Speaker 1: ought to what these folks are doing or making watermelon mules.
Speaker 1: Now I know I done went from the garden to
Speaker 1: the barn, but stay with me. Mules don't make mules.
Speaker 1: A cross between a female horse and a male donkey
Speaker 1: makes a mule. Mules can do lots of things, but
Speaker 1: they can't make more mules. So by crossing a horse
Speaker 1: and a donkey, two separate sets of genes that are
Speaker 1: similar enough to be compatible but not actually the same,
Speaker 1: we get an animal whose reproductive parts are sterile. Seedless
Speaker 1: grapes made the same way different species of grapes across
Speaker 1: to create a mule grape, which has no seeds. But
Speaker 1: seedless grapes are easy to reproduce because once you have
Speaker 1: one plant, you can just take the cuttings off of
Speaker 1: it to plant and make some more watermelons. Not so fast,
Speaker 1: my friend. They ain't as easy because you have to
Speaker 1: produce new hybrid seeds every year, and there's only one
Speaker 1: species of watermelon to use for the crosses. To get
Speaker 1: two kinds of watermelons that are nearly but not quite
Speaker 1: genetically compatible. The trick is to change the number of
Speaker 1: chromosomes in one of them. And because I know that
Speaker 1: there's some folks right now that want to hear how
Speaker 1: it's done, I'm going to tell you the rest of
Speaker 1: y'all just hang on just a little bit longer, you're
Speaker 1: going to learn something to impress your friends and intimidate
Speaker 1: your enemals. Since nineteen thirty seven, plant scientists have been
Speaker 1: able to double the number of chromosomes in a plant
Speaker 1: by treating them during cell division with a chemical called
Speaker 1: culture scene. Colchi sine is a natural extract from the
Speaker 1: autumn crocus flower, which has been used as a natural
Speaker 1: medicine for gout for thousands of years. Normal watermelons have
Speaker 1: two copies of the the chromosomes in each cell. They're
Speaker 1: called diploid. The culture scene treatment doubles that from twenty
Speaker 1: two to forty four, and that's called tetraploid. Almost done, y'all,
Speaker 1: don't fail me. Now here's the trick. When the tetraploid
Speaker 1: watermelon flour is pollinated with the diployed watermelon flour, a
Speaker 1: triploid watermelon is created that has three chromosomes in each cell.
Speaker 1: This watermelon will have seeds that will grow to be
Speaker 1: seedless mule watermelons. Now that made my head hurt, But
Speaker 1: now I know, and you do too. You don't see
Speaker 1: folks gathering enough to eat tomatoes unless there's bacon and
Speaker 1: bread clothes, strawberries, they're great. But again, pull one of
Speaker 1: them out and cut it in half, and it's doubtful
Speaker 1: you'll get a second look. But try that with a
Speaker 1: watermelon and just see how long it takes for the
Speaker 1: folks to gather up and socialize. It could also just
Speaker 1: make you want to invite folks into share. I'm going
Speaker 1: to share a special memory of mine as a reward
Speaker 1: for those of you that lived through that seedless watermelon explanation.
Speaker 1: One summer day, my dad and I were headed home
Speaker 1: from his work. We'd been all over southeast Arkansas that
Speaker 1: day visiting commercial chicken farms. Now, his title for the
Speaker 1: job that he did for Valmac, the company that would
Speaker 1: eventually be acquired by a couple of different corporations before
Speaker 1: finally becoming Tyson Foods was serviceman. It was his job
Speaker 1: to drive to all the contract chicken farms in his
Speaker 1: assigned area and help the farmers produce the best chickens
Speaker 1: they could. If they needed to update equipment, a batch
Speaker 1: of medicated feed, or anything related to raising good chickens,
Speaker 1: it was his job to communicate that to the farmer. Now,
Speaker 1: I didn't know that I didn't work for him too,
Speaker 1: because in the summer. I was right there in the
Speaker 1: truck with him. Somewhere along the way on our visits
Speaker 1: to one of the many farms, somebody had given us
Speaker 1: a watermelon. It was a black diamond, our favorite, a big,
Speaker 1: dark emerald green giant of a watermelon. And I couldn't
Speaker 1: wait to get home, so weekud busted wide open. In
Speaker 1: less than two miles from our house, we passed the
Speaker 1: home of mister Julius Robinson. Mister Julius was retired and
Speaker 1: had been for as long as I could remember. He
Speaker 1: was retired from what I assumed, because I don't know
Speaker 1: what had been a lifetime of farm work, or in
Speaker 1: the logwoods, or in one of the timber mills, which
Speaker 1: is what the majority of folks did in that area.
Speaker 1: Small truck farms and anything related to the hard labor
Speaker 1: end of the timber industry was the biggest employer. It
Speaker 1: was hard work, but people were happy, seemed to make
Speaker 1: it all right. They raised crops. Youngins went to church
Speaker 1: and visited with one another. He was born in nineteen
Speaker 1: o two, when Teddy Roosevelt was president, and nine years
Speaker 1: before the Chevrolet Brothers got together in Detroit, Michigan to
Speaker 1: start the company that would eventually build the truck that
Speaker 1: he was set on. And on this day, when we
Speaker 1: passed mister julius house, he was sitting there where I
Speaker 1: had seen him sitting a million times before. His old
Speaker 1: blue truck sat on the car port with the end
Speaker 1: gate down, and nine times out of ten when you
Speaker 1: drove by, there sat mister Julius gently swinging his feet
Speaker 1: and waving it folks when they passed. He always wore
Speaker 1: over ross and long sleeved shirts buttoned to the neck,
Speaker 1: regardless of the weather. We had the windows rolled down,
Speaker 1: and I guess me hanging out of it waving caught
Speaker 1: my dad's attention. He said, what are you doing? I said,
Speaker 1: I'm waving at mister Julius. Well, no sinner than I
Speaker 1: said that. The Dad slowed down, and as he was
Speaker 1: turning around in the road, he said, let's go share
Speaker 1: this water melton with him. We pulled up in the
Speaker 1: shade of a huge red oak that's been gone now
Speaker 1: for years, and I ran and I hopped up on
Speaker 1: the tailgate beside him. He was smiling ear to ear.
Speaker 1: We always saw him there, but we rarely saw him
Speaker 1: with anyone. He patted me on the knee and said
Speaker 1: that what you fellers doing. My dad came around behind
Speaker 1: the truck and said, Julius, you want some of this?
Speaker 1: And he said, I sure do, buddy. And we sat
Speaker 1: there and I listened to them talk about that country,
Speaker 1: old times and our people, and we ate watermelon. They
Speaker 1: both talked to me and included me in the conversation.
Speaker 1: Mister Julius knew my grandfather, a man that my dad
Speaker 1: hadn't really known. He'd been killed in a work related
Speaker 1: accident in nineteen forty three after going to California to
Speaker 1: build navy ships and support the war effort, and my
Speaker 1: dad was only six years old. We spent most of
Speaker 1: the afternoon there just talking. Long after that watermelon was gone.
Speaker 1: We stopped by a few more times until mister Julius
Speaker 1: didn't live there anymore. He passed away twenty three years ago,
Speaker 1: and his wife, Nancy, thirty two years before that. And
Speaker 1: because of my dad's random idea of wanting to share
Speaker 1: a watermelon with a lonely neighbor, I got to have
Speaker 1: a wonderful memory and another connection to my family's past.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter that we weren't related, or that we
Speaker 1: didn't look alike. All that mattered was the connection of
Speaker 1: three generations. The country folks shared that afternoon in the
Speaker 1: shade of that oak tree. It seems like there ain't
Speaker 1: near enough of watermelon sharing going on these days, but
Speaker 1: I bet it's more than were there. So your challenges
Speaker 1: this Go to the farmers market, roadside stand or a
Speaker 1: grocery store and get two watermelon. Take one home and
Speaker 1: enjoy it with your family and friends. The other one,
Speaker 1: put it in your truck and start driving. One thing's
Speaker 1: for sure, you'll never see your mister Julius until you
Speaker 1: start looking for him. I sure enjoy telling you all
Speaker 1: these stories. If you enjoy them, please share them with
Speaker 1: your friends, and if you get a chance, leave this
Speaker 1: country life for review. I don't know the math that
Speaker 1: goes into that, but it definitely helps spread the word.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's a number of fractions in leathers. Hey
Speaker 1: keep the salt away from the watermelon. This is Brent
Speaker 1: Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful