First of all, there is the Heat... it is in the 90's here now, and that sun beats down hard when I am standing there for several hours with no shade. Sweat just pours off of me, and I usually look like I took a bath with my clothes on by the time I leave! When I was a kid, we were very poor, and most of what we ate came out of our gardens or was harvested from nature. Late Spring and early Summer brought huckleberries (like a wild blueberry), plums, and my favorite - Blackberries. Seemed like it was always the doggone hottest day of the summer when Mama would tell us we were going to pick them. My sisters and I would get old tin buckets we kept for things like that and head out behind Mama, walking to the blackberry patches that could be found scattered throughout our land. We normally went barefoot in the summer, but since thorns and briars had to be dealt with, we would put on flip-flops or some other sandal shoes to protect our feet. Shorts and a tank top was the rest of the required uniform. Bottled water didn't exist back then, but Mama always brought a thermos of Kool-Aid or tea, and water in a jug. The blackberries back then were huge and juicy, and we usually ate several handfuls first before we put any in our buckets. Mmmm... that taste of warm, sweet blackberries in the summer just cannot be beat! It would be so hot, and you would get so itchy and grimy picking berries. When we finished picking, many times Mama would let us go swim in the pond or wade in the creek to cool off. There is no shower that can refresh you like a dip in a pond or creek on a hot summer day after spending several hours in the broiling sun. It was worth the heat to feel that first splash of water on you, with the blue sky overhead, the sounds and smells of country summer all around, and the feeling that Life Was Good.
Second, there are the bugs... ugh... I am a country girl but I really detest bugs! I still have to prepare myself and set my mind to get ready for the plagues of critters that must be dealt with in order to harvest those blackberries! There are pesky, never ending flies that buzz round and round your head and make you generally crazy trying to swat them and pick berries at the same time. Occasionally, a really big, nasty horse fly lands on you and bites... AARRGGHHH! Those things hurt like nobody's business, and the icky part is you have to swat and squish them on you while they are biting, or they will Eat you alive! Another vicious attacker is the armies of Fire Ants that will silently crawl all over you, then, at the same time, all of them will bite you.... WHAAAA!!!! They call those buggers Fire ants for a reason, cause it feels like you are on fire when they chomp down on tender, sunburnt skin... I still cringe when I remember some of my nasty encounters with those mighty monsters. My most dreaded insect to encounter was the stink bug. I am an adult now, but I still do a shrieking, jumping-up-and-down dance when one of those buggers gets on me. The worst ones are the big brown ones... if they bite you, they can do real damage to your body and mind! They excrete this crazy odor that you instantly recognize, and which causes you to start to get all paranoid while trying to identify where the culprit is, and if it is a stink bug or... a rattlesnake... because the odor is the same. I have done serious harm to myself while surrounded by thorny blackberry vines, freaking out at the smell of one of them, trying to dislodge my hair and skin from the briars while vainly trying not to drop my bucket of blackberries as I exit the patch. Then there were those insects that you couldn't see, but you knew they lived in the Blackberry Patch and had made a new home on your body about 2 hours after you got home... REDBUGS!!!! ITCH... ITCH... ITCH!!!! (You Yankees know them as chiggers.) Ugh... I have nearly become a nervous, scratching wreck as a kid from those vicious little critters! We tried all kinds of cures, preventatives, and old folk remedies, but there was only one sure fired way to get rid of those pests... Strip down outside in bright sunlight and let Mama remove them with her trusty old safety pin! Even after they were removed, you would have whelps that itched for a solid week. Absolutely nothing would prevent them getting on you, and nothing but time would stop that horrible itch. (Thank goodness today I have found several natural remedies {Young Living Essential Oils} that prevent those microscopic maniacs from getting on me!) The worse place to get a redbug bite was in your privates... GEEZE!!! You had two choices then... ITCH or scratch like a pervert!!!! Many are the times I have suffered horribly in silence to maintain my respectability and dignity. Ahh, the memories...
Third, are the Snakes... and snakes can be found very frequently in blackberry patches, especially rattlesnakes. I am pretty sure it is because many other animals (rats, birds, etc) come to eat the berries, and the snakes come to eat Them. I have only ever seen 3 rattlesnakes in a blackberry patch (one was just last week... a big six foot Eastern Diamondback that scared the beegeezus outta me and added 10 years worth of gray hairs to my head... as I had no weapon handy, I let it go it's way, or rather, I went MY WAY)... but the threat is real and very scary, especially as you are wearing shorts and flip-flops and are stuck in a briar patch from which you cannot extricate yourself easily... The few occasions a snake is spotted, or heard, it goes like this... "WAAAAHHHHH.... SNAKE!!!!!!!... WAAAAHHHHHHHH... MAMA!!!!"... followed by much crashing, screeching, crying, and thudding as all buckets are Dropped and everyone Quickly Exits the blackberry patch with bleeding scratches on their faces, hands, and legs. Mama would restore order, while the offender was identified. Most of the time, it was a limb, vine, or some other object that looked like a snake to the terrified and paranoid kid, but some times... If indeed it was a snake, and deemed poisonous, a HOLY WAR was declared on it... commencing with grabbing the hoe (which was always kept handy for just such an occasion) and beating the Hell out of the reptile in question until it no longer moved. Then, it was dragged out and examined by us kids, exclaimed over, measured, and usually hung on a nearby tree limb to warn all the other snakes in the vicinity to Stay Away! Finding a Snake in the blackberry patch was the highlight of our summer....
And of course, last, but not least, the biggest and baddest thing about the Blackberry Patch was those dadgummed thorns and briars. For sheer torture, nothing can be compared to sunburnt skin being ripped open by a big, thorny, clinging vine that cuts right through like a chainsaw. There is a mild, toxic poison on them, too, that causes the injured area to burn for several minutes afterward. Of course it bleeds, which attracts even more flies and gnats.... When I was a child, I was convinced every summer that I would remain scarred on my legs for life from encounters with those vines. And my fingers, ooohhhh how my fingers suffered from those nasty little briars digging deep into the soft fleshy pads. For a solid week after you pick them, you find sore spots on your fingers, and you're removing tiny thorns and briars from tender areas. God help you if you slip or lose your flip-flops and step on one of those horrible vines... EEEKKKK... AAAAGGGGHHHH.... This requires Immediate Attention, for which you must gingerly (and usually with only one foot) walk/hop out of the patch while not dropping your bucket of berries. Mama always kept a big safety pin on her for this type of surgery, which sounded like this, "Keep your foot still so I can git it out... OUCH... MAMA! That HURTS!... HOLD STILL... you younguns, one of you grab her hands and the other get her leg so I can git this thang out.... OOOOOWWWWWWW!!!!!... See, that wasn't bad, all yo' hollerin' and carryin' on like I was killin' you!"
Child limps back to retrieve her bucket and carry on picking blackberries, swearing to all that is precious that she Will Not, Absolutely Will Not, EVER, EVER, EVER!... pick blackberries when she grows up... Adult, who grew up, laughs at the memories, and reaches to pick that great big, juicy blackberry just out of her grasp...
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