Uncle Oscar was out on the farm when this memory took place. This was where my dad and Uncle Jack were raised. When I was very young I spent a lot of time there during the day myself. I spent a lot of time with Aunt Mary because she baby sat me on occasion! 

Back to it. Uncle Oscar was out in the field when Dad and I showed up to help. Well Dad was there to help, I was too small! 

Uncle Jack was lying on a tarp under the trees on the field’s edge in the shade. Uncle Oscar was still putting the hay in rows with an old dump rake!

Uncle Oscar had picked a ripe watermelon and had one of Aunt Mary’s bread knives by it to cut it up when he finished with the raking! We were on the tarp with Uncle Jack and Dad told Jack, “Slide that watermelon over here Jack!”

Dad took a thin bladed jack knife out and a small bottle of some adult beverage, it was clear and about a half pint!

Uncle Jack said, “Albert what are you up to?” with a grin on his face!

Dad said, “Well Jack you know that when a watermelon is ripe too long, they lose a little juice! So,I’ll make sure this one isn’t dry. Don’t worry Auk (aka Oscar) won’t know the difference. I’ve done this before and you’ll enjoy it too!”

Well Dad marked the melon with the bottle cap and then he cut a perfect circle into the melon skin. He then inserted the neck of the bottle into the hole so the bottle was upside down and it began to burp air bubbles and empty its contents till the bottle was empty! Dad then put the plug back into the melon and rolled it around a few times to even out the flavor enhancement!

I think Uncle Jack was grinning all this time. All I remember is Dad telling me, “Don’t you tell Auk what I did OK?”

I was young and didn’t really know what was taking place? But I kept quiet! 

Uncle Oscar finally came in with the tractor and joined us under the trees, he chatted a bit and then said, “Let’s have some melon!”

Uncle Jack had to turn away, he was chuckling lightly. Dad was trying to keep a straight face also! I didn’t really see anything funny!  

Dad was making small talk with Auk asking him how he knows when the melons are ripe? 

Auk carved off some nice slices and passed them out and made a comment, “Boy this is about the juiciest melon I’ve picked?”

I thought Uncle Jack was going to lose it! Dad agreed that it was juicy and just the way he likes his!

Auk engulfed his slice and was going for a second and Uncle Jack had to remind him on the second slice that he was eating into the rind! Jack said, “Auk you better slow down, we still must eat dinner you know!”

Dad agreed with him, “We better save some for later!” 

Well, they finished the melon, I stayed on the tarp, and they went out and picked up a trailer load of hay. Auk had a hay lift left over from the horse drawn days and a giant 2 wheel trailer with a rack. Dad and Jack rode the trailer with pitch forks piling the hay high on the trailer! Then we went in for lunch with a load of hay to go up in the hay mow! 

We went for lunch after we cleaned up and then Aunt Mary kind of noticed that we all were in a happy mood! Then when everyone was filling their plates commenting on a wonderful lunch she had made, she thought she smelled a slight odor. She even mentioned to them, “You haven’t been drinking, have you?”

They replied, “No, we had some watermelon that’s all!”

Aunt Mary said, “Well, I kind of smell something?”

Uncle Oscar told her, “Now stop it Mary we just had a melon that’s all!” 

I stayed in the house after lunch and Dad and Jack helped Auk finish the haying! 

Later, in life I stayed with Aunt Mary during summer vacation and once she asked me, “Mike does your dad like to drink?”

I told her, “I never see him do it?”

She said, “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”

I replied “NO!”

She said “Are you sure?” and she never asked me again!  

When Aunt Mary was young, she remembered all the farmers bringing empty jugs with corks to a farmer who had a silo and when they were going to chop silage they would fill the bottom of the silo with jugs. In the spring when the silage was gone the jugs would be full of what she called drippings and then they would drink this! She hated it. She said people would get terrible drunk! She sure didn’t like drinking!

That day Dad told me to only eat a little piece! I still don’t like watermelon to this day!