"Just Plant a Watermelon..."

Growing up my mom would often (though I know not as often as she would like, probably as often as I used to get out my flute before I started flute choir) get out her guitar and sing songs and complain that she needed to build back up her callouses. She would sing songs that she used to play for her students when she first started teaching and songs that she would sing at camp or church events when she was younger. She would sing, "How much is that doggy in the window," "If I had a hammer," "It only takes a spark," and others. I don't know the name of one of my favorites or where it came from but legend has it (I came up with the legend thing while talking to my brother about it today. There are so many things that we just don't know about our parents and our childhood that we just kind of get to make things up and say, "legend has it...") that mom would sing it at Camp Ladore (Labrodore, I don't know...) and every year the staff would add a new goofy ending to it.

Anyway, the song goes like this:

"Just plant a watermelon right on my grave and let the juice *loud slurping noise* slurp through,
Just plant a watermelon right on my grave that's all I ask of you.
Now Southern fried chicken might taste mighty fine but what could taste better than a watermelon rind?
Just plant a watermelon right on my grave and let the juice slurp through,
Let the juuuuuice sluuuuuurp through
Come on baby let the juice slurp through, uh huh sock it to me let it all hang out all right up tight everything is out of sight far out."

OK, the last line is just the goofy endings. It is such a fun song. Last summer we started watermelon plants and looking at them I thought, "OH!!! I NEED to plant one of these on my mom's grave!!!" But in the process of moving and transplanting and such they all died. We visited Grandma and Grandpa many times last summer but never made it up to mom's grave with a seed so it didn't happen last year.

Today we went to spend the day at Grandma and Grandpa's to visit them and to get out of Glenn's hair for his last day of studying. We had watermelon for a snack and we set aside a few seeds grinning and telling Grandma and later Grandpa of our plan and singing them the song.

On our way home I finally planted a watermelon on my mom's grave. I think that it would have made her laugh so hard :). The kids and I *quietly* sang the watermelon song as we each planted a seed (we didn't want to offend anyone at the cemetery by singing such a song at the top of our lungs - though I was tempted!)

Thanks God for a legacy of silliness I get to pass down as well! :)