modom (palindrome guy) wrote:
> On Tue, 03 Jul 2007 04:46:14 GMT, Cindy Fuller
> > wrote:
>
>
>>In article >,
>>Kate Connally > wrote:
>>
>>
>>>The black raspberries are in so I drove out to Schramm's
>>>Farm Market and got a pint. (If I could have afforded it I
>>>would have bought all they had!) Anyway, I got some heavy
>>>cream on the way home and for dessert last night I had a
>>>giant bowl of berries with sugar and cream. Yum!
>>>
>>
>>That reminds me of home. During the summers I'd pick wild raspberries
>>of all colors and blackberries on my grandfather's farm. My trusty
>>part-Labrador retriever Lucy would accompany me, as would my mother's
>>basset hound Clementine and my 20-pound black cat Shamus. Lucy learned
>>how to pick ripe berries off the canes. Clem couldn't be choosy (being
>>so low to the ground). Shamus didn't care for berries. He came along
>>to keep the dogs in line. Lucy and Clem also enjoyed sweet corn. Lucy
>>would pick her own ear off the stalk. Clem, again due to her stature
>>deficit, would just uproot the whole stalk.
>>
>>Cindy, in a semi-nostalgic mood
>
>
> Nice story, Cindy. As a kid I'd pick wild blackberries and dewberries
> out by the bayou near my grandparents' house in Louisiana. My friend
> and I would take pots from my grandmother's kitched and a pocketfull
> of rocks with us. The pots were for the beries. The rocks for the
> snakes. I was in heaven.

When we went blackberry pickin' we wore my great uncle's
old work clothes - long sleeved shirts and long pants -
and put large rubber bands on the pants legs at our
ankles to keep the poison ivy out. The long sleeves
were for the same reason. We would take all manner of
pots and pans and buckets, whatever we could find, to
hold the berries. When we got back we scrubbed our
hands and faces with brown laundry soap (you know,
the old-fashioned stuff that came in a bar) to remove
and possible poison ivy contamination. We were all
allergic, but I was especially so. We didn't worry about
snakes, although we had various kinds in the area - garter
snakes, black snakes, milk snakes, etc. Nothing poisonous
except a possible copperhead but no one ever saw any around
where we lived. Besides, I loved, still, love snakes.
But I was the only one in the family who did. ;-)

Kate

--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?