WATERMELON FARMING STORIES - PART 1

I LOVE WATERMELONS!

This is the beginning of a series of stories about the venture into raising watermelons for the wholesale market by the Colvin and Jones families of Unionville, Louisiana.  I was between ten and fifteen years old when my father and grandfather tried their hand at raising watermelons as a farm crop.  There are many memories of the successes and struggles that my families encountered as they strived to make a living from the fertile farmland of North Louisiana.

Let us begin with some history of the events leading up to our family living in Unionville.  My father was raised in Junction City, Arkansas and my mother was raised in Unionville, Louisiana.  Shortly after graduation from college, they married and set up household in Linville, Louisiana.  My father took the position of Principal/Coach of Linville School and my mother, who had been a school teacher for several years in Homer, Louisiana retired from teaching.

During the next few years three children were born into this family;  myself, my brother Richard and sister Penelope.  Sometimes in life, events happen that change the course of the remainder of the life of a family.  During the summer of 1949, I came down with the dreaded disease of polio and had to spend three months in the Charity Hospital in New Orleans.  My father resigned as Principal of Linville School and moved to New Orleans to be near me while my mother and siblings moved to Unionville to live with her parents.  After I was discharged from the hospital, my father resigned from his position at Linville school and we joined the rest of our family at Unionville.  Once settled in Unionville my father went into partnership with my grandfather in his grocery store/gas station.

My grandfather had been operating the store for years and also had a successful small farming operation raising cotton, corn and watermelons.  With the increase in the number of people that the store had to support, it was necessary to expand the farming operation to raise the needed income.  During that era, watermelons were a money making crop, so my father decided to try his hand at raising watermelons on a larger scale.

To be continued……..

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

The post for today is a memorial for my father, James Garland Jones, Sr.  My father was born in 1911 in Junction City, Louisiana and passed away in 1974 at our family store in Unionville, Louisiana.  The picture on the left is me and my father on the front porch of my Jones grandparent's house in Junction City and the one on the right is my father and sister in the store in Unionville, Louisiana.

I am thankful for a caring father that loved his family and worked hard all of his life to provide for them.  He worked hard to make the store a success, but always had time for his family.  Because of his efforts he provided the beliefs and foundation that have enabled me and my siblings to have a successful life and families of our own that we can love just as he did.  God bless you Daddy.

FARM TRACTORS

 A Tractor for Caden

These pictures are of me and my father on the old farm tractor that he and my grandfather used for farming.  When I look at these pictures it brings back memories for my early childhood of seeing the tractor being used to plow the fields.  The engine of the tractor made a distinct powerful sound as it pulled the plows that prepared the soil for the planting of the next crops.  As the disc plow began to break the fertile ground you could begin to smell the pungent aroma  of the rich earth. Farming in those days was a profitable occupation and my father and grandfather had many years of abundant crops of cotton, corn, purple hull peas, cantaloupes, and watermelons.

I seem to be having a great time being on the tractor with my father and pretending to drive it by myself.  I have heard that we inherit genes from our ancestors that gives us likes and dislikes in our lives.  I think that my great grandson, Caden surely inherited this gene that gave him a fondness for tractors. The next two pictures show him with me and with my son, his grandfather, on my lawn tractor.  Every time he comes over to our house the first thing that he wants to do is to go sit on the tractor and pretend that he is driving it.

For Caden's second birthday we found this tractor and knew that it was the perfect birthday present.  As you can see from the  picture, he certainly enjoys "my tractor" when he comes to visit us.

These are the memories that we make that make life enjoyable.