My sister, Margaret and our cousin, Sissy ate watermelon all day long. Not because they loved watermelon that much but because they made it a contest…seeing who could spit the seeds the farthest. Oh, I ate my share of cold watermelon too. Only thing, I swallowed more of the seeds than I spit. Margaret and Sissy would have giggling fits watching me. After awhile, it began to get on my nerves. But with me being only four years old, if I wasn’t “winning,” nothing was much fun.
The screech of a large bird of an unknown species temporarily caught my attention. As I watched him circling the sky above me, I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes, and wished, “Swoop down and grab Margaret and Sissy and leave them on top of a mountain somewhere…please.”
But of course, that didn’t happen. Frowning, I muttered, “Who ever heard of a family picnic reunion? And on the hottest day of the year…ole’ hot steamy July 4th. …and in Texas!”
Suddenly I smelled vanilla…the kind of vanilla that goes into homemade vanilla ice cream. Thoughts of watermelon seeds, uncooperative birds, strange people, and the scorching heat disappeared when I spotted my Aunt Leora heading toward me with a bowl of ice cream.
“Thought you might like this.”
I could only smile and nod my head.
Just when I thought this reunion thing wasn’t really so bad, up walk Margaret and Sissy. “Hey squirt, did you know that if you swallow watermelon seeds, they’ll grow out your ears.”
I fell for it hook, line, and sinker! Suddenly I understood why my mother always warned me, “Don’t swallow the seeds.”
After returning home, I spent a great deal of time in front of the mirror checking out my ears for any signs that watermelon harvest was near. Hey! I was four years old…
Lesson learned? To this day, I would rather face a firing squad than swallow a watermelon seed.
