One of the things that I remember about Papaw is the blackberry bush.
He had one at his house in center point. Then when Gospel Publishing moved to hwy 79, he thought it was a good idea to plant an insane amount of wild blackberry bushes. Yes, the wild kind. The kind that takes over your yard like it owns it.
I can remember him taking me to the blackberry bushes. I watched with amazement as he gobbled blackberries like he hadn't eaten in a few days. He was humming as he ate them. And occasionally he would look at me as if to say, "what are you waiting for?"
So I joined him. And 9 out 10 blackberries that I picked were sour. And they had fuzz on them. And my fingers were stained purple. And those dang stickers hurt. And it was a hundred and hell degrees outside. I didn't have the same satisfaction that he had.
But remember how powerful his presence was? RW was over there living it up eating blackberries. So much so that I couldn't stop. I didn't even like what I was experiencing. But what was I going to do? tell him I didn't like them? And have him growl at me like I was crazy? Nah, I'd rather just keep eating. After all, one out of ten tasted pretty good.
Richard
2 comments:
i remember picking blackberries in a field beside an old kmart store. it was mosquito infested jungle and i hated every minute of it. there was no choice. we had to pick. it's hard to pick blackberries, swat at mosquitos and scratch bites all at the same time. but we managed. when we got home we would pour sugar on them, then milk and eat them like cereal. and to this day i love blackberry jam and blackberry cobbler. and to this day i hope i never have to pick another blackberry. isn't that why God created smuckers?
I too had several blackberry picking experiences and one time pawpaw even made me a jelly out of all the berries we picked. what really got my head spinning though is what you said about 9 out of 10 being sour and covered in fuzz. For some reason i thought that's what they were supposed to be like and maybe that's why i gleefully threw down handfuls of berries alongside pawpaw dismissing the after taste of each one. hmmm.... so they weren't supposed to be sour?...
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