2002-06-26 10:40 a.m. The parking lot was full, so we got our two kids to help us as we pulled off the main road and hid the car behind some evergreens. Todd, the youngest, we boosted up to the lower branches so he could jump on them until they cracked off and fell down. Most times we caught him, no problem. Eliot, our other boy and the eldest, appreciated it when we gave him the responsibility of covering the car with the branches so no police officer would notice our parking job and give us a ticket. We couldn't just turn around and go home, you see, because the boys were competing in the National Watermelon Seed Spitting Competition. We had to get inside. The boys were allowed in free with their laminated spitting passes, but Natalie and I had to pay almost full price. We saved a few dollars by bringing canned goods (green beans and sauerkraut... two separate cans, mind you). The afternoon in the park was sunny and perfect. Todd amazed the crowds by demonstrating his spit-curve special. They set up three stakes in a row just so the judges could see that the seed actually weaves in and out between them in a graceful spinning arc. Eliot, the eldest, sent other young boys home in tears, welts on their faces and arms. Those wearing shorts may have had trouble sitting on the long car ride home because when a Watermelon Seed Duel is declared, Eliot goes for the human body's most sensitive stretches of skin. Another boy was taken off in an ambulance after catching a stray seed in his eye. It wasn't Eliot's fault, it was another match, but when the news reached us I saw a glint in Eliot's eye that both chilled me and made me proud. The kid's a firecracker! Todd was unfortunately knocked out of the running when he couldn't eat one of those new talking watermelons. There were a few eggheads in labcoats snickering at their success as kids bit into the melons then staggered back in shock, watermelon bits tumbling over their teeth and onto their flip flops as the watermelons screamed in pain and begged for their lives. At the end of day, we found that Eliot's trophy was so big that we could only fit it in the car if Todd rode curled up in the back, pressed against the glass of the car's hatchback. We drove home, tired and proud, the windshield wipers doing nothing to get the tree sap off the windshield, our fingers and mouths sticky with the taste of victory. |
1. today is nice 3. happy yesterdays 8. thanks for hosting 4. doing other things |
(Proof that I am the only one reading.) |