(Mama and Daddy)
I was raised with a strong and very old school hand. My father was so strict that I remember so many times growing up that I said I hated my father time and time again.
(All of us...Plus some. The 3 boys in back are my brothers and the 2 girls on bottom, my sisters and me)
One of the times that I hated my father was in the summer time. During this time of the year my Daddy did something he loved, almost as much as each of his 6 kids. He would grow a garden. Not just a small little garden with tomatoes and corn. This garden was a half of an acre in the back of our house. It was the most beautiful garden around. People would drive by it and take pictures because of all the color and size. They would go on and on about how pretty it was, and how they wished they could grow a garden like that. But I hated it.
(Daddy in Planning mode)
When it came time to plant, we just couldn't go out plant the garden. Oh no, there was a system, a time to plant each and everything. When it would come time to plant each thing, my Daddy would first till the ground..then he would run an old fashioned plow to make his rows. As daddy would go down making the rows, one of us kids would go behind him throwing down fertilizer, the other kid would go behind and cover it a little, another kid would come down threw and drop the seeds, another would come along and cover the seeds with dirt. Sometimes like with the squash, there wasn't rows, there was mounds and we would have to poke holes in the mound and fertilize and drop the seeds. There was a job for each of us. Sometimes I thought my Mama and Daddy only had 6 kids to help him in the garden.
Every morning my dad would get each of us kids up and tell us to get dressed and ready to go out to the garden. Ahhh how I hated getting up, specially on the weekend. From dawn til dusk we would be out in that garden. Picking suckers from 15 rows of corn, weeds from 10 rows of green beans, pushing up the hills for the squash, all while being careful not to step on the watermelon and cantaloupe vines. There was squash, corn, green beans, okra, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, carrots, caluiflower, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, lettuce, peas, onions and sweet potatoes. We would weed each and every one of them.
(Daddy and Phillip with his first picked watermelon..he was so proud)
Watering was the worst, because it was so far behind our house. But it was when we had to crawl under the house to hook up the hose each and ever time. Daddy never let the water hose be kept on cause he was scared us kids would turn on the water and run the well dry. Under the house was nothing but spiders and webs. That is probably where my fear comes from today.
Then it was time for harvesting. Now I had to admit this was a little more fun the weeding but all the same it was a job meant for a tractor instead of people. Daddy had his system for this job too. The onions get strung, the potatoes go in the bins in the garage, the corn either got canned or put in baggies. And they all had to be shucked first. THE WORST JOB EVER! Have you ever tried to shuck 15 rows of corn. Even with 6 kids a mom and dad it took days. Every vine of beans had to be gotten and then canned.
Which brings me to the canning. We were a family of 8, we lived in a trailer and our kitchen was the size of a normal bathroom, it was a tight fit. While one would boil the jars and lids, another was bagging another veggie, another was helping mama, an so on. Again, a job for every kid.
One year my sister was so fed up she ran away when it came time to harvest and string the onions. I hated her for that, cause one kid down may as well been 5 down. She picked the perfect time to piss daddy off!
(My all time favorites of my Daddy. Yep..he grew that!)
I hated it growning up. But now as a mother, a wife and their daughter...and as a grown up I see how far we all have drifted apart...I can honestly say it was some of the best times of my life. I now see that my Daddy did what he did to survive. We were by no means wealthy with material items, but far more wealthy then the richest of men. We never went hungry, we learned responsibility, we learned respect for what you own and pride from something we grew with our own hands. We never fought in the garden, we worked as a team. I so much wish we could all go back to that time. Where I seen my brothers and sisters every day and hating seeing their faces. The faces I long to see today. I haven't seen my sisters for years and my brother I seen the last time in 2009. My mama and daddy I haven't seen since then either. Those were happier times. As adults we let our emotions and our need to run our own lives come inbetween. Things I wish I hadn't said, things I hope they wish they hadn't done. My life as a kid truely was a happy little country song that I remember my family everytime I hear it...If the world had a front porch like we did back then.
To end this... I just want to say that to this day I have not been able to grow a single thing garden or house plant. Makes me know for sure that it wasn't I that grew the garden...it was my Daddy.
B
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