Small Potatoes

Category: The Daytime of Life | Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 12:13 pm

Looking at Sjoerd's post on potatoes reminded me of how far I have come since I was a teenager. I was a bookworm, and hated doing ANYTHING outside. While my sister and brothers worked in the garden with my parents . . . I would stay inside cooking and cleaning.

I remember one Saturday when it was just my mama and I at home, and she enlisted me to assist her "gathering potatoes," at least that is how I heard it . . . being the halflistening and reluctant teenager that I was. She directed me to my row, while she worked on the row above me, telling me that after I finished just toss the plant to the side.
Finally we arrived at the end of our rows . . . she proudly displayed her bucket filled with little red marble shaped potatoes. I looked with dismay down into my own empty bucket stating, "Well I didn't find a one on the vines to pick." Boy . . . she was ready to wring my neck, as the only thing I had done was search the vines like I was picking tomatoes, and the lopped them off at ground level . . . tossing them to the side.
She told me that she was "fed up to the gills" with me, and sent me off into the house to wash breakfast dishes, while she went back, and dug up that whole row to find the missing potatoes.
I think about days like that when my youngest son, David, who is 19 years old now, doesn't pay a bit of attention to advice I give him . . . I turned out okay . . . so there is hope for him also.

This picture was made about 17 years ago . . .David and my Aunt Etta's first mess of potatoes grown from a few oversprouting potatoes Grandma had forgotten about under her sink. We have come along way . . . hopefully he will too!!

Last edited: Fri Sep 04, 2015 5:04 pm

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glendann wrote on Sun Apr 13, 2008 4:08 pm:

Your son will be fine as you were.I didn't help in the garden much as we had fields of peas ,corn, watermelon ,pinto beans ,all kinds of veggies but the adults worked those as they were harvested canned and then my uncle took them to town and sold them to the super markets .I hated the chopping and picking cotton.hoeing the corn.The worse was pulling corn.

Droopy wrote on Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:42 pm:

I love your potato story. I had to chuckle and laugh - it's so typical teen-age behaviour. Don't ask if you don't understand!

Biita wrote on Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:16 pm:

What we think goes in one ear and out the other is never really true. look at us. at one point in our teens we totally ignored our parents,, but did we really? I think your son will remember all the advise you give him when its time for him to remember.. including picking potatoes,,,lol.

Sjoerd wrote on Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:31 pm:

What a great story. I really had to smile.
That's the sort of story that stays in the family for years, isn't it?
Well, I certainaly agree that you turned out alright and your son will too, I have
no doubt about that--it's in his genes, innit?
I agree with Biita 100%.
I know from my own history that I heard things, it was just that I have always had such a great need to do things my way. ha ha ha.
I'm better now....I think.
If I turned out ok after thinking for myself and choosing my own path, remains to be seen (by others). As for me, true to my nature...I have no doubt. ;-)
--That was a nice harvest in the foto.