Ethyl remembers. Blackberry time in Tishomingo County

In June Tishomingo county is abundant in wonderful delicious blackberries. The vines bloom around the first of May with very pretty little white blossoms. In Mississippi we usually have a cold snap around the same time the blackberries bloom, and the local people always refer to that unseasonal weather event as blackberry winter. Then the fruit forms. Tiny green balls at first, then they turn red right before they become black and sweet and ready to eat. The fields and pastures are filled with vines hanging full with the ripe, succulent fruit. Every summer since I was a child, blackberry picking in June was a yearly event. We would dress in long sleeve shirts, heavy work boots, thick socks, and most of the time we wore overalls, and head out across the fields to pick berries. There are three hazards to berry picking.

The one that most readily comes to mind are the snakes. You learn very young to never step into tall grass or weeds where you can't see where your feet will land. You watch carefully and make sure you always know what is close by.

The second hazard is the briers. The vines don't give up their bounty without a fight. Be as careful as you can, you are going to come away with scratches and briers in your fingers and sometimes even up your arms and on your legs. It is just an occupational hazard. Deal with it. The berries are well worth the fight.

And the third hazard is the chiggers. Chiggers are tiny insects that live in the grass and no matter how you try to protect yourself, the chiggers are gonna get you. You can wear long pants tucked into your boots, you can tie little strips of cloth soaked in kerosene around your ankles, you can take all the precautions you can think of, in the end the chiggers will win. They will find their way through every mine field you can devise and crawl onto your skin. And when they do, they will bite and bite and bite and you will end up covered with a multitude of little red lesions that itch like crazy.

Which brings me to the next part of my story. One summer when I was young and newly married our neighbor's pasture was totally saturated with blackberry vines loaded to the max with huge, ripe, falling off the vine berries. The pasture had been mowed so most of the tall grass had been removed, but the berries were growing along the ditch banks and in certain open places in the pasture. She had given me permission to pick, so early one June morning I set out across the pasture with my two gallon bucket to pick berries. It was about nine o'clock when I started and by around noon, my bucket was filled to the brim with shiny blackberries. It was terribly hot that day, a condition made worse by the great amount of clothing I was wearing.

There was a beautiful little creek that ran down through the middle of the pasture, clear as crystal with a rocky bottom. We had to wade the creek to get to the part of the pasture where the berries grew, and as I crossed it with my bucket of berries, it suddenly occurred to me how good that cool creek water would feel on my skin. And then there was the matter of the chiggers. If I waited until I got to the other side of the pasture and climbed the hill to my house, those pesky little critters would have an opportunity to lodge themselves firmly in my flesh. I weighted my options carefully. Which was the greater risk? Some old farmer coming puttering along on his tractor and seeing me or the chiggers firmly lodging themselves into my flesh. After considering both sides of the issue and carefully pondering the outcome, sixty second later I made a decision. I took off every stitch of clothing I had on and lay down in the gently meandering stream.. As hot as it was that June day, in just a few minutes I was shivering to beat the band. The water was so cold and crisp it almost took my breath away, but at the same time it also took away the vast majority of the chiggers. Climbing out and getting dressed, I contemplated what my husband was going to say about my little adventure. He reacted very much as I expected.

"You did what", he exclaimed! "You were naked down in that pasture. What would you have done if some old farmer had come along on his tractor, and you were out there in the creek naked as a jay bird".

"Nothing", I said. "I would have done nothing. Look, I had to choose between the chiggers, which were a very real and present threat, and the very remote possibility that Farmer John was going to venture by, and I figured John was far less of a treat than the chiggers. And anyway, if he had happened by, the problem would have been his, not mind. He might very well have lost his bearing and fell off his tractor, but I figured there was not much of a possibility I would drown in less than a foot of water. And I reckon he would have eventually gotten over the shock. Might have been the most excitement the old man had for years".

Aah!! Summers in the rural South. Such a sweet memory.