There was one that I won at the 4th of July picnic in the downtown park in Palisade, Colorado when I was in 4th grade. Bennett Young was running the "prize wheel." I think it was a dollar a number. He spun the wheel, it landed on MY number. I won a big watermelon. I felt like the luckiest kid on earth. Not sure how many they gave away that day. I've had a saying all my life that has morphed a bit but started a few years later. It goes like this:
"I don't really gamble. Maybe 5 lottery tickets in my life, a bit of gambling in Vegas when I had to go there for work and met my friends there. In my family, we're not all that lucky. We work for what we get. Pretty much topped out when I won a watermelon at the 4th of July picnic when I was in 4th grade."
Of course, part of that was that it was the first summer we lived there. I was new in the town my parents grew up in and just learning to enjoy small town life. My parents knew EVERYONE. As we walked around everyone wanted to talk to my Dad. People have always been drawn to him.
Mary Lou Manning (the grandma I chose for myself a few years later) saw my Mom across the street at the Memorial Parade that next year. She told me that she turned to her husband, Wilbert and said something close to, "she's so beautiful and happy, I'd love to know her." A few weeks later my Dad stopped by to see Wilbert, his old family friend. They arranged a dinner with their spouses and BAMB she spotted my Mom and was so excited to know her that the friendship became family. I spent nights of football games at their house making banana bread with her, learning to make my favorite pickles and taking LONG baths in their great big old claw foot bathtub. I now realize it was the only bathroom in the house :D. Not one knock. EVER.
More about them later . . . . they WERE love and family to me.
The other watermelon on my mind was when I was a bit older, maybe 12. We were camping above 10,000 ft. on Grand Mesa. Haven't been there in years - still my favorite place on earth. We didn't own a tent yet so we slept in our big station wagon. Dad, Mom and Lisa slept on a foam pad in the back. I slept on the seat under those big window skylights. I watched a meteor shower for HOURS. Not sure how many I saw but it had to have been thousands. The next day Dad retrieved a HUGE watermelon from it's spot in the creek. It had been there to keep cool in the cold, mountain spring water that tasted better than anything I've ever had since. Watermelon was cold as ice, the day was sunny and warm. It was perfect.
I hope these taste like that when we eat them with our kids this week.
