The Deer Hunter enjoying a piece of watermelon
When I was an early teen, I’d often go stay with my Aunt in the summer. They had 8 kids and her husband often worked out of town on a road construction job. More then a few times we’d start up a fire, put a big oval coolpacker on the fire filled with young field corn. Out in the yard we were all 10 eating fresh corn then having watermelon for dessert. And we weren’t beyond having a corn cob fight or watermelon rind fight, before throwing it all over the fence to the “other” pigs. At which time we’d line up by the pump to wash out. Every kid should be raised in the country.
—Annie
I love those summertime memories Annie shared! Reminds me of eating a big ole slice of watermelon that Pap had cooled in the creek all day.
We’d all go out behind the house with a big butcher knife a salt shaker and a towel or two and enjoy being together as a family as the sweet juice slid down our chins and arms. Pap would usually start a gnat smoke to ward off the bugs and we’d sit out there until it began to get dark.
Last night’s video: Answering Questions: How Old Are We, Matt’s Crooked Finger, Bucket List, & Who Has a Temper?
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Seems I’m the only one in my family who loves watermelon & I can’t for the life of me understand why I’m the only one. From the start of the season till the end, I always have a cold watermelon in my fridge, having some for breakfast, lunch, snack & even a salad with dinner sometimes. They don’t know what they’re missing.
We had watermelon in the Midwest but more frequent it was cantaloupe we enjoyed. And I learned that salt was the best otherwise I only used it on raw tomatoes.
As I grew up, married and moved to FL, I discovered that folks put salt on watermelon. Let’s just say, I learned that wasn’t for me. I would get a melon several times over the summer for our two children (& esp. myself).
These days, every time I see a roadside peddler, I will pull over and ask for one if I have cash in hand. Rarely been disappointed. Now, if there’s a cold one waiting in the refrigerator, there’s no shame at having some in the morning nor mid-afternoon all alone on a plate with just a parring knife in hand. Yes! The sweet cool taste of summer.
When I was coming up watermelon was a rare treat. We didn’t have room to grow them properly. We did have a peddler come by now and then selling them and if Daddy had any cash he might buy one. He would put it in the spring box to chill until the next day. The overnight anticipation was unbearable but then there was morning to get through.
The spring box didn’t get the watermelon super cold and that was a good thing. A good watermelon needs to be about 50º to taste it’s best. Much below that it starts to take on the taste of a sorbet. Some people might like it like that. I don’t! And no salt for me either, please! I’ve tried it both ways and I prefer the unadulterated version.
Daddy would cut the watermelon into eight pieces and somehow he managed to match the size of kid with the piece they received. He cut bigger pieces for himself and Mommy but usually the kids finished their slice and began begging for more. Who could refuse? So, both of them never got to enjoy an adult sized slice. Thinking back I wouldn’t have begged. If they had gotten to savor the appropriate portion, they might have scratched deeper to find funding the next time the peddler came by. Or offered to swap a chicken. We had lots of chickens!
My grandson absolutely loves watermelon so much. If we get one and it’s not all the way ripe and we have to wait a few days , he can’t stand it. He will say is it done yet, can we eat it now? This last one we had we had to wait about 3 or 4 days. You should if seen him. When we did eat it boy was it good. it was perfect.
Matt was a cutie pie!!! Watermelon is a treat. You HAVE to watermelon in the summer, or it’s not summer. My husband and I really enjoyed the Q & A video. I love it when Matt gets to talking. I guess he is still a cutie pie. I can say that because I am 72!!! Take care and God bless ❤️
Matt sure grew through his haircut!
Blessings to all . . .
What a sweet picture! When I was home, we all would also go out behind the house, daddy carrying the watermelon and mama bringing the butcher knife and the salt shaker. I think that was one of the highlights of summer. We took the rinds to the hogs, and they enjoyed it as much as we did. There was a lady in our church that could make the best watermelon rind pickles/perserves that I have ever eaten. No one could make them like she could. No one in my family or my husband’s fixed them so these days if I get the chance to buy any, we will but they sure don’t taste like Miss Clara’s.
After I finished high school, I worked with a lady that brought me a couple of jars of her homemade watermelon preserves. They were good. I don’t care for watermelon pickles. For many years mother would make citron preserves. These volunteer citrons would come back each year for many years. In case you don’t know, citrons look similar to watermelons but the meat (insides) are hard and at least for the ones I mentioned are a clear yellowish color. Making preserves out of them is only thing I ever knew them to be good for. I have heard that deer will not even eat them.
The Deer Hunter amazingly looks so much like our own son who had a similar mop of hair!
I have a picture of my older brother and me as toddlers sitting on a wooden table outside eating watermelon. We all loved it but my garden space has never produced melons of any quality. Still trying though–my best friend saved some honeydew seeds for me from the best ones she ever raised.
Corn on the cob is one of my true loves! Mama would cook a huge pot full for 6 of us and there was never any leftover. I love it any way. My husband will not eat corn on the cob!! I always tell him that there’s something wrong with him.
I continue to think of Miss Cindy and all of her family and friends.
Nothing says summer evening like an ice cold watermelon, a salt shaker, and family.
God bless you tipper, I’m cooking my green beans,
Truly, God gave us the sweetest, most juicy summer fruit as a blessing and relief from heat. I would guess watermelon is just about everyone’s favorite summer treat! Just ask that little Deer Hunter!
I’m curious to know what a coolpacker is.
The highlight of my summer would be the day daddy loaded all the kids in the back of his pickup truck and headed down the road in search of a wide spot to have a picnic. Mom would spread a bedsheet on the ground for us to sit on as we enjoyed our picnic that consisted of a big homegrown watermelon and a salt shaker.
What a precious picture of the Deer Hunter eating watermelon as a toddler. Deer Hunter’s picture and Annie’s story made me think of how my mom cut up big slices of watermelon every summer throughout the summer for us kids to enjoy, as well as her and my dad. Several subscribers commented as kids they had seed spitter contest or food fights with the watermelon rind, well that brought back a ton of memories for me with my siblings because we did the same thing. My mom took the water hose to us afterwards to get off all the sticky seeds and juice, then we would run around to dry off some before going in the house to get an actual bath. I love reading your post Tipper and get just as much enjoyment from reading the comments too. It’s like we are all having great conversations of sharing our memories together and you are the perfect host getting the conversations going. Thank you all for sharing!
I have already wrote too much, but I always put salt on watermelons, oranges or in bitter tasting orange juice and sometimes will put both salt and black pepper on cantaloupe. In my early morning comment, I mentioned fried fatback and gravy, I don’t understand why some of the mom and pop restaurants don’t put this on their menu to go along with sausage gravy biscuits. Some do have fried fatback but not gravy. If they did, I would be eating breakfast there every morning.,
Randy, I enjoy reading your comments! Don’t ever think it’s enough.
I grew up in Texas, but some of your stories conjure happy memories for me. I was born in Luling, Texas–“The Watermelon Capital” where my grandparents lived, so I grew up loving watermelon. My family moved away before I was born. I always looked forward to going to see my grandparents because they lived on a farm & would always have watermelons for us to take home. My grandpa would sometimes carve our names on the uncut watermelon. I remember one time he carved one for my brother, Stanley & the one he carved for me read “Snoopy”. I have often wondered what I did to earn that nick name. I just really remember very well, my sweet grandma scolding him & telling him he was NEVER to call me Snoopy again! They were such wonderful grandparents & I still miss them even though they’ve been gone 40+ years.
My uncle was the only person in my family who still gardened when I was growing up. He would bring a big watermelon and fresh corn to our house and he would throw the watermelon in the swimming pool and all us kids would float around the pool holding it. After my Dad grilled us up some hamburgers, we would lay out newspapers on the patio table and Daddy would slice the watermelon for all of us to enjoy. We all would have a contest to see who could spit their watermelon seeds the furthest then would all get hosed off and jump back in the pool to swim until we were made to get out. Such wonderful memories! I wish now I would have gone to my uncles house and learned how to garden from him but as a child it didn’t interest me. I soak everything I can in as an adult because I feel like it’s in me to garden. That’s one reason I love to watch all the gardening videos and read all about it. Love seeing everyone’s memories! Hope everyone has a blessed day today.
Tipper,
At which time we’d line up by the pump to “wash out.”
I’ve always heard the expression, “Wash up or wash down” but don’t remember ever hearing Annie’s “wash out” expression.
Watermelon! Nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day. Daddy would go up the road to Russell’s grocery store and get the biggest ole watermelon he could find for us five kids. To eat watermelon was a treat for us..that juice sure tasted good running down our arms. So many good memories growing up and my great grands love to hear these storiesand I love to tell them!
I had my first sugar baby melon the other day and my oh my it was very good. Just big enough for me! It’s going to be hot today so stay hydrated and eat watermelon! God bless✝️
The look on baby Deer Hunter’s face shows he really liked and enjoyed his sweet, juicy watermelon! He was an adorable little feller for sure! When I was little, we would all gather in the back yard with a salt shaker and eat watermelon. It was messy, but the in the heat, the splendid company and watermelon running juice everywhere was great fun! We could water hose off and keep going! You’d have to have a great big watermelon too to feed all those relatives! There was usually MUSH melons too or cantaloupes. I have found most folks like one or the other, not both! Those were the days indeed!
My little brother loved water melon so for his birthday mom and dad put candles on it .
I was just telling my husband the other night how my brothers and I would have watermelon seed spitting contests when we were young. Such wonderful memories. Your posts do invoke the most precious memories.
I always like a good watermelon. I remember those summer evenings of sitting on the patio with nothing but short pants on and gnawing on the watermelon rind, trying to get that last bit of melon that was right up against the rind. it was good, but it was messy and when we got finished the juice would be all over our faces and stomach. I’ve always said if you don’t need a bath after eating watermelon, you didn’t eat it right.
I’m so nostalgic for the 70s right now! These posts keep raking me back!
My grandfather sprinkled salt on his watermelon too. When I finally tried it, I understood why. Just a tiny bit,, it brings out the flavor.
I know my family and myself never used salt. We grew watermelon’s and they were so sweet we used to say they hurt our teeth. I ate almost a whole small watermelon last night with some fried squash and boiled peanuts later on in the evening. I mentioned to some of my relatives about salt and they looked at me like, “wonder if she has been drinking.” oh well.
Such beautiful stories! Thank you!
I think watermelon is my favorite summer treat. we used to take a big one to the beach everything we went in a big cooler. my sister and I continued even as adults. always had a watermel9n seed spitting contest to see how far we could get them. so much fun!!
I just love all your stories and the memories it conjures up. I love reading the comments from others too.
Such fun to hear someone else cooling watermelon in the creek. We used to, after eating the flesh from an uncut half, try floating that half in the water…sometime yes and sometime no Such a great Q&A and exposing yourselves to us in such an intimate manner. Your love and devotion for each other goes without saying and does go without saying. The looks and closeness that you show does not need words. You did not, however, tell when your birthdays were, just the month. Perhaps next time. Looking forward to the next one, for sure. Give Granny my best and God Bless.
I was raised and still live on the old home place in the country, nearest small country town of Honea Path, SC is 15 miles from my home. This is the post office of my address. When growing up, we and everyone of our neighbors had a garden, watermelon and cantaloupe patch. Here in the 50’s and 60’s the two most often grown varieties of watermelons were the Charleston Gray or Congo. They would be others, some grown as large as 75lbs or more. I still love the Charleston Gray but they are hard to find unless you grow your own. A popular cantaloupe was one named Poloskey, could be misspelled, I think it also went by another name. These cantaloupes would be big but were bad to crack open on the blossom end. I once saw one that was about the size of a soccer ball. Each afternoon, my grandaddy and me would eat a watermelon each day and on up in the mornings divide a cantaloupe between us. My grandaddy’s home had big oak trees in his front yard that provided a lot of shade, during the summer when the chain gang would be working on the road in front of our house, he would give these men watermelons and draw up fresh buckets of water from his well and carry it to them while they took a break, rested and sit under these trees. There is nothing I like better than hot homemade biscuits, fried out fatback and gravy (hunky doo gravy to my family) and a home grown cantaloupe. We would often eat this for breakfast when growing up. If I was on death row, I think I would ask for this as my last meal. Like Annie (my grandmother’s name) said, the rinds and anything else leftover would be fed to the hogs.
What a great story. Thanks for sharing it.
Laura, my grandaddy was one of the finest Christian men I ever knew. Each morning when he would feed his mule, Kate, and his chickens he would sing one of two hymns, either Angel Band or a Beautiful Life. The last one has these words in it “Each day I do a golden deed by helping those that are in need” or similar words. His Bible and these songs are roadmaps of life he lived by.