Third in a series
There was not much happening on one lazy summer Sunday afternoon in the 1930s when several (eight or nine) girls went for a walk down the dusty road in Houston County leading out of Sheldon toward Houston. Their usual turn-around point was Hank Johnson’s driveway, one mile out of Sheldon. As they approached that location, the older girls began talking about Hank Johnson’s watermelon patch, the epitome of melon patches in Beaver Creek Valley – and evidently, far beyond. With melons being ripe at the time, mouths began to water, and thoughts turned to how wonderful one would taste after a summer Sunday stroll near Sheldon. A melon could be purchased, but no one had funds for fruit.
The older girls concocted a plan calling for the two youngest, most gullible and also the most beguiling girls to walk up to the house and inquire if they could buy a melon with the intention of paying later. Meanwhile, the rest of the girls would wait out on the road. The older girls were old enough to know better, and the two youngest were innocent enough to go along with the ruse.
The two melon wranglers, Florence Roland and Lilly Flatten, proceeded up a coulee and crossed the creek. There was no bridge; the Johnsons forded the creek via automobile with a plank available for foot traffic. They found Hank at home alone.
As the girls were admitted through the door onto the front porch, they were surrounded by a porch-full of watermelons. Forgetting the phrasing they had been instructed to use, they instead uttered, ”Do you have any watermelons?” Hank laughed and replied, “Do I have watermelons! Do you want some?”
“Yes, if we could,” answered the girls, “and for the rest of the kids out by the road.” Hank filled a gunny sack and asked if they could carry it. They replied that they could, although they could barely lift it. While heading away, they called back, “How much do they cost? We don’t have any money?” Again, he laughed and told them those melons were free.
Off they trudged, lugging their precious cargo, which was getting heavier by the minute. They made it across the creek with no mishap, but they were unable to open a gate. So, they climbed a fence. It took all their strength to lift the melon bag over as well. And when it dropped on the other side, one of the melons smashed. They decided the best option was to consume that melon immediately.
While they were enjoying that mangled melon, two of the other girls appeared on the rise, sent as scouts to ascertain what was taking “the poor little scavengers” so long. Encountering the two melon-munchers, the scouts were furious, thinking they had been betrayed by Florence and Lilly, who were dividing for themselves the only watermelon.
But after discovering the extent of the haul, the older girls were a great help in toting the heavy fruit back to the other hungry conspirators. Since no one had a knife, they threw the melons on the ground to break them. They devoured watermelon until they could consume no more. Even after that fruit feast in the fields, there was still enough melon left to take home.
Serendipitously that evening, the John and Louise Flatten family had supper guests, who were served watermelon for dessert. However, even though it was Lilly’s favorite fruit, she turned it down that night for the only time in her life.
The soil on the Flatten farm was not suitable for growing watermelon. When they bought one, it was shared by the large family – definitely not enough for anyone to “pig out.” But raspberries were another story. A few blocks from their house, they had an eight-acre plot where there was a large cornfield, a large alfalfa field and pasture land with a dry run, which they called “River Jordan.” Mr. Flatten decided to supplement the family income by growing and marketing raspberries and converted about two or more acres of cornfield into a raspberry patch.
He hired older kids in town, including four of his children, to pick berries. Crates would be stacked in the living room until he took them to sell to grocers not only in nearby villages but also in La Crosse, Wis., and Decorah, Iowa. On Sunday afternoons, it was “U-Pick-‘Em time” when folks would arrive from miles around.
The Flatten family garden always contained ground cherries, which grew on a low plant and were encased in a husk. Unfamiliar to many folks, they were yellow and had a lot of soft seeds. But like strawberries, the seeds were eaten along with the rest of the fruit. They were delicious in jam and sauces as were red currants.
Other delectable edibles were harvested during autumn in the woods on the nearby hillsides where pickers could find black walnuts, hickory nuts and the rarer butternuts. Lilly surmised hickory nuts to be similar to pecans and butternuts to be so named due to the fat content.
There was a nut sheller “contraption” they used to remove the outer shells of the black walnuts. The dye from the shells would turn the children’s hands dark brown. Although that stain elicited disdain from their mother, it was a point of pride when among their friends at school.
Back in the garden was a wide variety of vegetables, including the old standards: lettuce, onions green and yellow, peas, carrots, lima beans, pole beans, yellow beans, string beans, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins and sweet corn. Mrs. Flatten also took pride in growing less standard cauliflower, parsnips, kohlrabi, salsify, kale, broccoli, eggplant and brussels sprouts. The root cellar was full each fall with veggies and all the canned produce.
For home-grown popcorn, the harvested corn was hung up to dry and then shelled off the cob, resulting in sore fingers. The kernels were sharp. Chaff, flakes off the cob, was blown away from the shelled corn before popping.
Source: Down An Old Dirt Road, Life in Rural Sheldon, Minnesota During the 1920s, ‘30s and Early ‘40s, by the family of John and Louise (Jensen) Flatten.
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