THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608050041
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 56 lines
Folks were moving along the counter of the open shed at Williams Farm in Virginia Beach buying sweet corn, tomatoes, squash, string beans, but, sad to say, no Harper cantaloupes.
Cloudbursts had wiped out the cantaloupe crop that otherwise would have continued a week.
This may not seem a deprivation to you, and not until I tasted Harpers 30 years ago did they mean much to me. But after trying a Harper hybrid, I began eating a half to begin and end each day.
A farmer's job is like that of a riverboat gambler. A turn of the wheel sends him from top to bottom. This turn, though, the wheel is working both ways. The same rains that ruined the early crop is spurring the growth of a late crop Johnny Williams planted as a gamble.
So with mingled despair and hope I watched the moving line of customers, most of whom had no notion of what they had missed nor what might come.
Tall, distinguished Judge John A. MacKenzie of Portsmouth stood nearby. ``Did I ever tell you the story about John F. Kennedy campaigning in West Virginia,'' he asked me. ``If I told you, don't stop me. I love telling it.''
That reminded me of Gov. Colgate Darden. When he recognized an old story was coming he'd begin to laugh until, at the end, he was an earthquake of mirth.
``When Kennedy was campaigning in West Virginia, he stopped at a schoolhouse crammed with coal miners,'' the judge said.
``He had hardly begun to speak, when a fellow, bent from toil in the mines, arose and shouted - BE SURE TO GET SOME OF THAT SWEET CORN, BETSY!''
In the line, a sweet-faced lady smiled and I realized the judge had left the story, momentarily, to address his wife. He resumed the tale:
``The miner called, `Young fellow, did you ever work all day digging coal from a seam so narrow you had to crawl outside to make room to turn over the pick?'
``Kennedy admitted he hadn't and was well into his speech when another miner shouted - BETSY, DON'T PASS UP THOSE TOMATOES!'' The judge, without missing a beat, picked up the thread: ``. . . and shouted, don't tell me you ever scrabbled on your knees in a mine leaking black water down your neck - BETSY, HONEY, DON'T LINGER OVER THAT SQUASH!
``At last, an old man got up in the rear and called to Kennedy: `Let me tell you something, Son. If you ain't worked in a mine, you ain't missed a goldurned thing!' ''
The judge laughed, and I, who'd heard the story, held onto the empty Harper bin and laughed with him. If you don't laugh, Darden said, you cry. A good story, well told as this one, restores the soul.
If the second crop comes in, I'll take the judge a melon. Maybe he'll tell me his Kennedy story. ILLUSTRATION: Tall, distinguished Judge John A. MacKenzie of
Portsmouth stood nearby. ``Did I ever tell you the story about . . .
'' by CNB