Summer's gifts

As a child, I always looked forward to June. School was out. I could sleep until I woke up late in the morning. No pressure, no deadlines, no homework, just freedom, peace, and time to read and play. 

Our family never took vacations. We had a farm, and that meant working every single day to care for livestock, milk cows, and ensure all animals stayed within their confines. My father and his four sons worked all day, every weekday, in the fields. Summer was the growing season for peanuts, cotton, and corn. 

I was infatuated with corn. From its earliest days, when two shoots came out and tentatively tested the air, corn amazed me. Those two green shoots became a stalk with long leaves. Next, tiny ears of corn appeared on the stalks that were taller than I. I liked walking in corn rows. I felt like I was in a tunnel as the leaves reached out across the space between rows. 

As the corn matured, the plants towered over me, and the ears of corn grew fat in their husks. Silky streamers protruded from the ends, sometimes white or pink before they turned reddish-brown. They became the hair of glamorous girls in my imagination. Sometimes I stopped and braided the silks the way Mother braided my long hair. I learned that each strand of corn silk is connected with a kernel of corn.

We often had boiled corn for our midday meal, which we called dinner. It was so good with Mother's homemade butter. I hated the job of silking the corn. We had to find the tiny strings embedded between the rows of kernels. 

When I was a child, corn was not as sweet as it is today. It was always good, however. A few years ago, I bought some corn at an outdoor produce stand. The corn had been enhanced to make it extremely sweet. It did not taste natural. What disappointment! We humans think we must enhance or improve all of nature's plants to suit our cravings, sugar being one of the worst.

Here in the city where I now abide, Publix has begun buying fresh corn. My sister, Gay, has brought me several ears and I am happy to say they tasted good, not overly sweet. 

My deck garden is doing well. My squash plant has been full of yellow blooms. I hope they become crookneck squash. One of my tomato plants has three green babies, and one is beginning to blush. I can't grow corn on my deck, but I have flowers and lots of Hosta.

Yesterday, Stu, my bil, put up holders for my bird feeders and hung a plant holder on my deck. He is handy with a drill and a screw driver. He is also kind and helpful.

June is the birth month of my beloved sister, June. The 25th is embedded in my memory. I often say a little prayer of gratitude for having such a generous and loving person in my life, one of the women who made me who I am today. 

My sister, June, sitting in the chair. I miss her

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