plugs and opposites

[Charles C Doyle]

In my part of east Texas, so standard was the practice of thumping a melon to test its ripeness that we children had a game of thumping the heads of unsuspecting peers and exclaiming "Watermellon!"  Some IQ points were no doubt lost in the process of that merriment.

--Charlie

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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Wilson Gray [hwgray at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2011 1:01 AM.


Instead of rapping his knuckles upon the fruit, my grandfather, as was
the usual method amongst the colored in Marshall, Texas, thumped the
watermelon. If, in Grandfather's opinion, the resulting sound
indicated that the watermelon was not fit for human consumption, the
vendor would offer to plug it. If my grandfather was not already fully
persuaded that his own opinion was sufficient, then he would accept
the offer, whereupon the vendor would plunge his plugging-knife into
the melon four times, so as to form a rectangle of sorts. At the
fourth plunge, instead of withdrawing his knife, the vendor would
employ his knife as a tool with which to lever out the plug.
Grandfather would then examine the thickness of the rind and take a
bite of the plug so as to ascertain flavor. If he was satisfied, he
would buy that melon, paying whatever price was asked, probably
because it would been quite mean-spirited to hassle these
extremely-poor people, whose only other source of income was
share-cropping. And, once The Man had taken out his share, the
'cropper often found himself in debt, despite months of back-breaking
labor by him and his entire family.

So-called "country-folk" drove into, around, and through the colored
part of town on wooden, buckboard-ish wagons drawn by a mule, two
mules, if the load required them. The bed of the wagon was lined with
hay for cushioning and the watermelons were placed on top of that.

If the melons were the much-smaller muskmelons, thumping was the only
test applied. Country-folk also sold other truck, such as
"purple-hulled" peas. The green hulls had purplish streaks along their
long axes. The peas themselves were nothing special to look at and,
when cooked, were indistinguishable from black-eyed peas to my eye and
palate. Other veggies and fruits were grown by Granddad in his garden,
gardening being very much his hobby, despite the fact that it meant
working *hard* in the East-Texas heat and humidity, when he wasn't
obligated to.

(People plug Kraft's American?! WTF?! Who knew!)

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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