Summer Days

Summer for me growing up meant lazy days in Grandmas pool and helping Grandpa with the gardens and fruit/veggie stand.  Many days was I left in charge of running the stand while Grandpa went to get more produce.  Little did I know that would teach me a valuable lesson.  I think Grandpa knew what he was teaching me without saying it.  I learned how to count change back, which to a lot of people is not an easy thing to do.  For me its second nature.  I also got unlimited time with him.  Precious time that I took for granted.  We would sit for hours out front and talk about nothing and everything.  I remember this one time Jack dared me to bite into a jalepeno pepper.  I did because he dared me and swore it wasnt hot.  Liar.  My love for cantelope started at the stand.  Grandpa would cut into peaches and juice would run down his arm.  Those were the good ones.  The ones that just melted in your mouth.  Whenever someone would come that had never been there, he had a good way of convincing them to buy more than they stopped for.  "Here try this" he would say.  They would because they didnt want to be rude, and more times than not they bought whatever he gave them.  So many times he would have me run to one of the gardens to grab some sort of veggie he needed for a customer.  He had so many loyal customers.  People that would come and tell him how they went to the store and wanted corn and got some only to be disappointed when they ate it.  He told me a story one time about how to test the perfect watermelon.  He went on to tell me how he would sneak into watermelon patches at night and put one hand on one side of the watermelon and very lightly tap with one finger on the other side.  If you could feel it on your hand without hearing it, its a good one.  If he saw someone shaking a cantelope he would ask them why they were shaking it.  They always told him...."To see if its ripe".  He would just shake his head and smile.  "Here, let me show you how to tell" he would say as he took the melon from them.  He would scratch where it was cut from the vine and smell.  If it smelled ripe, it was good.  If he was here today I would thank him for my wonderful summer memories that I have.  The memories that I had almost forgotten.