WATERMELON FARMING STORIES - PART 2

HEADING IN FROM THE WATERMELON PATCH

Many of my memories of the watermelon farming years are dim since I was in my early teens during that time.  Even though I was not old enough to take part in the plowing of the field and planting of the watermelon crop, I certainly remember some of the jobs that my father gave me when the watermelon vines were up and growing.

One of the first jobs once the watermelon plants had broken through the surface of the soil was to “chop” the watermelons.  This involved using a hoe and removing the weeds as they came up between and around the young watermelon plants.  Because of my age, I did not take part in this task, probably because I would have “chopped” as many small watermelon plants as weeds.

Once the watermelon plants were larger and the vines were running in all directions, it was necessary to “turn the watermelon vines”.  Since the watermelon vines would run in all directions, it was necessary to move the vines so they ran along the rows.  This would allow room for the tractor and disc between the rows to turn the soil to help control the weeds and soil moisture.  My father would take my brother and myself out to the watermelon field near the house, show us how to “turn the vines” and the leave us in the hot sunshine to complete the awesome task.  I can remember that there seemed to be no end to the rows and then when you had completed one row there was always another long row waiting.

An unusual task called “painting the watermelons” was necessary one year when the weather was so hot and dry.   There was so much heat and sun that year that the top of our Black Diamond melons was being sunburned and turning yellow before they were ripe.  This gave a bad appearance to the melons and this sunburned area tended to get soft and rotten before the melons were ready for harvest.  To prevent the melons from becoming sunburned, my father came up with a unique plan.  He mixed up some whitewash paint and we painted the top of the melons white to prevent them from becoming sunburned.  We could easily rub off this nontoxic paint with our hands when harvesting the melons.  I can only imagine what this unusual sight of people painting the tops of watermelons presented to people driving by our watermelon patches.

There are many stories to tell of harvesting the watermelon crop, but I will leave these to another blog post.

To be continued……

MEMORIES FROM COLVIN AND JONES GENERAL STORE

The above picture is a scan of an original oil painting that my wife presented to me in 1982.  The painting was done by Mildred Barr Smith from an old photograph that we had of the store.  The date of the photograph would probably be between 1960 and 1970 before Highway 167 was widened and the store was moved back with the front section removed.  As I look at the painting, memories come back to me of the many wonderful hours of my life that occurred at the store.  There is something about an oil painting that seems to capture the reality of how things were in those days.  Something in the warmth of the painting brings forth feelings and emotions that cannot be captured with a photograph.  The following are some of the things that I see in the picture that bring back memories to me.

The black pick-up truck parked beside the store that "Nubbin" the handyman around the store drove back and forth to work everyday.  The black sealer on the store roof that was used to seal the many holes in the tin roof.  For many years, when it rained, we had to place buckets in the side store room to keep the leaking water from the roof from ruining our stock of animal feed.  The benches and the coke box on the front porch of the store.  Even though they are not exactly correct and in the right positions, they still bring back memories of listening to the old men that would gather there and play cards and talk.  The gas pumps are a truth depiction of the original pumps that were at the store in the days when we sold Mobil gasoline.  The fifty-five gallon drum to the right of the gas pumps was for kerosene, a very necessary item for a time when everyone did not have electricity at home.

Most of all, when I look at this picture of the store, I remember what a welcome sight it was for Esther and I when we would come back to visit our family after we moved away from home.

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.

UNIONVILLE ALLIGATOR

THE UNIONVILLE ALLIGATOR

I have been relaxing and watching Lake Placid on the Sci-Fi channel this lazy Saturday afternoon.  Watching the giant crocodiles on this movie reminded me of the Unionville alligator.  It was a warm summer afternoon when someone stopped by the store and said that they had seen an alligator crossing the road and headed for Rome's Pond.  This was a small pond behind the home of Rome and Rosa Colvin's home where I spent many hours fishing for bream and bass.

It took me very little time to load my 22 automatic rifle and head out to the pond with many of the other citizens of Unionville.  When I arrived at Rome and Rosa's house the yard was full of vehicles.  It seemed that most of Unionville had heard about the alligator and had come to take a part in the hunt.  When I got down to the pond, I found that the alligator had been shot several times and was in shallow water at the upper end of the pond.  One of the brave hunters, S J Barmore, decided he would venture into the water, grab the alligator by the tail and drag him to dry land.  When he grabbed the alligator's tail the gator swung his head around and barely missed catching S J between his mighty jaws.  Someone then got a rope and was able to lasso the alligator's tail and along with several other people was able to drag him out of the water onto dry land.  We then shot him in the head several times, loaded him into the back of a pick-up and took him to the store to display for the community.

As you can see from the picture above the alligator was large, about five feet long.  This was one of the biggest events that ever happened in the small community of Unionville, and I never felt comfortable fishing on Rome's pond after the great alligator hunt.

SPOOL FURNITURE

HOW MANY PEOPLE REMEMBER SPOOL FURNITURE?

This picture shows my younger brother, Richard, and me enjoying some time outside on a warm summer afternoon.  Pictures such a these bring back pleasant memories of our youth that we have forgotten about.  Sometimes, if we study these pictures in detail, we will see items that give a special meaning to us about the picture.  In this picture, notice the table and chairs that my brother and I are using.  These pieces of furniture were known as spool furniture and were just two of the many pieces of this furniture at my maternal grandparents house in Unionville.

Spool furniture was constructed using simple basic materials: empty wooden sewing thread spools, wood, nails, all thread metal rods, washers and nuts.  During the years after WWII, times were hard and people were very frugal and used materials similar to how we recycle today.

My grandparents constructed this furniture from materials that they found around their house and store in Unionville.  The wooden spools came from the many spools of thread that my grandmother, Dell, emptied while sewing clothes for the family.  The wood that was used in constructing this furniture probably came from the wooden crates used for shipment of fruits and vegetables for the store.  (Side thought - My grandfather, Tut, carved out some of the coolest slingshots from the end pieces to these crates)  The rest of the material used for the furniture was found in the store stock.

Some years before my grandparents house was sold and torn down, I was exploring the root cellar underneath the back bedroom and rescued the only two pieces of spool furniture that were remaining.
Below are pictures of these that I have rebuilt to be as near to the original construction as possible.

We use these two corner tables on our back patio and I always enjoy telling the story of how I rescued them from being thrown in the trash.  They bring back memories of my growing up in Unionville and I hope that some of my descendants will appreciate them in the same way that I do.

COLVIN AND JONES STORE

This is a picture of the inside of my family's country grocery store/service station in the late 1950s.  The store name was "Colvin & Jones" and was a successful business venture that provided a living for the Jones and Colvin families for many years.  It was a ten hour six and one half day a week operation with only a part of the day off on Sunday to attend Sunday School and Church.  During the summer months we would usually close on Wednesday afternoon and take time off for some family time.

The individuals in the picture are my father,James Garland Jones, Sr; my mother Ruth Colvin Jones and the super cool young man in the center which happens to be me.  Notice that I was dressed in what would be considered very hip in those days.  With my FFA jacket, white tee shirt, rolled up blue jeans, white socks and black loafers, I was a real lady killer.  Probably hidden under the jacket was a thin white belt which was a mainstay of my wardrobe.  The store was a family project and we all chipped in to help to make the store a success.

Some of the interesting things that can be noted about the store in this picture are:  All of the electricity comes from drop cords and plenty of extension cords; By this time we had gone modern and had shopping carts; Grey Crickets for sale in the back room; We gave Delta Trading stamps with purchases (sign behind my father); the large amount of lard in buckets - we must have had a sale on lard that week.

I have so many interesting stories and memories to share about the store and will be doing so in the next coming weeks, so keep checking back.

MORE SNOW PICTURES

FAMILY FUN IN THE SNOW

Since the forecast is for a warm winter and it looks like no snow in the near future in Shreveport, it seems like a good time to return to the past and remember one of the big snowfalls in Unionville.  These pictures were made in front of my grandparents' house in Unionville during a big snowfall in the early 1950's.  The picture above is my father Garland Jones pulling my brother, sister and myself on a snow sled that he had made of wood.  Many years later during a snow in Shreveport, I built a very similar sled for my children and was able to relive some of my childhood memories with my own family.

Notice the shadow in the lower part of the picture.  That is the shadow of my photobug mother with her ever present Kodak Brownie box camera.  I will forever thank her for the moments in time that she saved for us.  Also, notice behind us on the sled the road sign.  I am not able to read the sign but am sure one of the towns is Dubach which was two miles North on Highway 167. 

In the picture to the left it seems that we had worn my Father out and he is using his old Chevy pickup to pull us around.  After playing outside and becoming very wet and cold Mother would get us inside, get us out of our wet clothes and we would warm one side and then the other in front of the space heaters in my grandparents' house.  Mother would then give us some hot chocolate to warm our insides and hang out our clothes in front of a heater to dry them.  After getting ourselves warmed up and some dry clothes on we would be back outside to enjoy the snow again.

A UNIONVILLE NEW YEAR'S EVE CELEBRATION

 As I sit here in my living room and the time to welcome in New Years 2012 approaches, I listen to the fireworks exploding and remember a Unionville New Years Eve that will forever be etched in my family's memory.  The following is the story of that night:

NEW YEAR’S IN UNIONVILLE

New Year’s Eve was usually a quiet celebration in the small community of Unionville, Louisiana in the 1950’s.  But there is one New Year’s Eve celebration that will be long remembered by the Colvin, Jones and Roberson families.

For several years there was an impromptu fireworks display put on by our Jones family and the Roberson family from Shreveport.  That celebration brought excitement to the local community and passersby on the main highway through Unionville.  Uncle M R Roberson had some connections and was able to get a huge supply of all types of fireworks.  When Uncle M R, Aunt Theo and their two sons Ernie and Mickey would come for a visit during the New Year holidays, they would bring enough of these fireworks for us to put on a first class fireworks display.

When Uncle M R would open the trunk of the car, all of us would gawk at the unbelievable supply of firecrackers, cherry bombs, sky rockets, roman candles, aerial bombs and sparklers.  Each of us would select the fireworks that we wanted and place them in cardboard boxes ready for the night of the fireworks display.  On the day set for the big fireworks show, each of us would choose our position for the display.  The location for the display was the high bank on the side of the “tee” intersection of Highway 167 and 822.  This high bank was across the highway from the Colvin and Jones Grocery Store and the parking area gave plenty of room for passing traffic on the roads to pull off and watch the show.

Once darkness had fallen, we would all take our positions and get ready to start the show.  Now, this was not really a real organized type of show so everyone just did their own little show.  But, once the show got to rolling it was very impressive and many people driving along the highway would pull over and stop to watch.

On one New Year’s Eve when I was a young teenager we had an unexpected, spectacular and unexpected closing to the show.  The show had been going on for about an hour and everyone had used about half of their fireworks.  It has gotten black dark and as I searched around in my box for the fireworks that I wanted to use I could not see very well.  Being a young man who acted first and then later thought about what repercussion his actions would have, I decided that more light was needed for me to find the fireworks I wanted.  The first thing that came to my mind was a sparkler, so I grabbed a sparkler, lit it and stuck it down into my box for light.  What happened next was a total shock to everyone including myself.  As I stuck the sparkler into the box it set off some of my fireworks in the box and I jumped back and dropped the sparkler into the box of fireworks.  What followed was the most spectacular New Year’s Eve fireworks display ever in Unionville as all of the fireworks started exploding and going in different directions.

SNOW PICTURES

SNOW IN UNIONVILLE!

Snow was rare in Unionville, but I remember more large snows in the mid 1900's in North Louisiana than we have at the present.  One snow fall of over six inches in the Winter of 1961-62 combined with temperatures near zero kept the roads impassable for a week.  I had just married and was in my Sophomore year at Louisiana Tech.  I missed a full week of school but we had plenty of fun hunting rabbits and playing in the snow.  My grandparents' house was built on piers about three feet above the ground with all of the water piping underneath, so if we did not leave the water dripping each night we would have no water the next day.  Those were some of the things that were not so good back in the "good ole days".

The pictures are of a snow fall in Unionville in the early 1950's.  The top picture is my grandparent's house and it looks like we had a good three to four inches of snow.  The second picture shows the side of the store with the longest icicles that I have ever seen.  Mother had us kids all dressed warm for getting out in the snow.  We all had our boots, heavy coats, and gloves on and Penny had a scarf to keep her ears warm.  Richard and I had on our aviator caps with the ear flaps to keep our ears covered and warm.  That is a style that you do not see much of in North Louisiana these days.

I certainly enjoyed playing in the snow and making snowmen but the best part was coming inside,  getting warm, and then setting down to a big bowl of delicious snow ice cream that Mother had made.  That is what memories are made of.  Keep watching - more snow pictures to follow.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM UNIONVILLE

Merry Christmas From The Unionville Joneses!

 The Unionville Joneses wish you a very merry Christmas and a very happy and prosperous New Year.  If you haven't done so look at my page "Unionville Stories" and click on the link to my story about "Christmas in Unionville".  This story was written several years ago and tells of some of the activities in the small community of Unionville during Christmas time.  Christmas was a very special time for my family and I will forever hold precious memories of the Christmas mornings that we spent together.  My father would get up early and fix us a scrumptious (we called it laripin) breakfast and mother would always have the radio on playing Christmas music to set the mood.

The pictures to the left show Christmas time in my parents living room during two different periods.  The top picture was made during the late 1950's and shows my sister Penny, my brother Richard and myself in front of our Christmas tree.  I am sure that the Christmas tree was a real tree.  Mother would not allow a artificial tree to be in her house during this time.  The bottom picture was made in the late 1960's and show my wife Esther, myself, and our two children at that time, Lynne and James, Jr.  There were always plenty of presents for everyone piled under the Christmas tree.  Take special notice of the Christmas tree in this picture.  It was an artificial aluminum tree that was mother's pride and joy.  Her views on the type of tree to have for Christmas had certainly changed in the years between these two pictures.  This tree came with a spot light with a multicolored wheel that would change the color of the tree as the wheel rotated.  This was a sight to behold through the picture window at the front of our house.

I hope that everyone has pleasant memories of Christmas during the time they were growing up and will take time to pass these memories on to their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

TAKING A WALK WITH GRANDFATHER "TUT"

A Picture With Many Memories And Much Unionville History

This picture is full of memories and history for me.  First, this is a picture of my brother Richard taking a walk with our Grandfather Ernest "Tut" Colvin which brings back many pleasant memories from my childhood.  Tut always had time to spend with his grandchildren, whether it was a simple walk or taking us on one of his fishing trips.  His time spent with us will be memories that will stay with us for our entire lives and have molded our lives such that we know the importance of spending time with our own grandchildren to create these type memories for them.  They are walking toward my grandparents' house from the main highway (Hwy 167) that passed through Unionville.  I would guess that the time frame for this picture would be around 1950 gauging from my brother's age and the fact that the main highway seems to be paved.  The structure in the background was a frame for a brush arbor that my grandfather constructed each year to shade his watermelons that he sold on this corner.  This entire structure was covered with tree limbs which provided a cool shade in the hot summer time to peddle the watermelons.  In later years my parents build their house just beyond the two large oak trees just behind the structure.  Also, notice the road sign beside the highway on the right side of the picture.  Enlarging the photo I found that the sign read "Vienna 7 and Ruston 11".  Our highways and road signs have certainly come a long way in the years since this picture was taken.

Goin' Fishing

READY TO HIT THE LAKE!

What better to do on a hot summer day than to go fishing.  This photo was made in 1955 at my grandparent's house in Unionville.  The adventuresome young men in the picture are; myself on the left, Richard Cox in the middle and my brother Richard on the right.  As you can see, although we are all barefoot, we are well equipped for fishing with our cane poles, cricket boxes and water jug.  Take special notice of the homemade cricket boxes.  These were the invention of my grandfather Tut who was the greatest bream and white perch fisherman that I have known.  Take special note of the special tin can top that would slide down into the box to keep the crickets from getting out.  In those days you could not just go to the corner store and get crickets but you had to catch your own.  So the crickets were a valuable commodity and we did not want any to escape before we had a chance to drown them.  We were probably heading out to one of our favorite fishing holes like Rome's pond or maybe Tut had a special fishing trip planned for us on Corney or D'Arbonne Bayou.  We would return at the end of the day with a big string of fish and be completely worn out, but a satisfied and happy group of boys who were only faced with the problem of who was going to clean all of those fish!

Some of the best memories that I have of growing up in Unionville are those of the many hours that I spent fishing with my grandfather Tut who taught me all that I needed to know about fishing and life.

The Beginning

Unionville, Louisiana had always been the home of my maternal grandparents Ernest and LaDell Colvin, better known to everyone as "Tut" and "Dell".  My grandfather Tut farmed and ran a "mom and pop" service station/grocery store at the intersection of Highways 167 and 822 which was downtown Unionville.  Downtown Unionville at that time consisted of the store and my grandparents home, which was located next to the store.  There will be many more stories associated with the store and my grandparents that I will share as my blog continues.

My move to Unionville came about in 1949 when I was eight years old and my family moved from Linville, Louisiana to Unionville.  My family consisted of myself, my father Garland, my mother Ruth, my younger brother Richard and my sister Penny.  I will share the reason for this move in one of my future blogs.  We settled in at Unionville and my father became a partner in the store, which was named Colvin and Jones at that time.  We lived with my grandparents until 1953 when my parents build a new house across the road from the store.  My brother, sister and I grew up on this corner and this blog is some of the memories that I have of how life in rural North Louisiana was in the 1950's and 1960's.

Visit my blog regularly -  My plans are to post new stories frequently.  Also visit my "Unionville Gang" page, which will be stories of group of youngsters living around Unionville as they were growing up.

Map of Unionville, Louisiana