Sometimes I’m left scratching my head and feeling like perhaps somewhere there is a camera filming my reaction to some silly situation.

As I’ve said before, this is my second year growing a box garden in my backyard.

Last year it was tomatoes and herbs. This year, tomatoes, watermelon and cantaloupe.

I didn’t know what to expect when I planted the melons. Certainly not that they would overflow the box and stretch into my yard.

But they did.

The fruit, however, was lacking. Out of all that greenery I had one watermelon and two cantaloupe.

Here’s the thing. Tomatoes are ripe when they turn red. Cantaloupe are ripe when they turn tan. Watermelons are ripe when...

I had no idea. And, I found that most other people have no idea either.

My step-ma said to pick them once the stem dries. That makes sense, but this huge watermelon vine is still as green as the day it was first planted and the watermelon stopped growing weeks ago.

My fear was that my very first melon would rot on the vine.

It became a regular topic with nearly everyone I came into contact with.

Do you know how to tell if a watermelon is ripe?

Growing up, my grandmother was always handing out advice that was based on old wives’ tales.

Who doesn’t know that if you get stung by a bee to put a penny on the sting and it will draw out the poison?

But, when my neighbor said to use two broom straws to check the ripeness of the melon, I was at the very least skeptical.

“Mr. G” [Julian Griffith] as he was dubbed by my son, told Ernie that one straw should be placed along the stripe of the melon and the other crosswise.

If the melon is ripe, the straws will line up. The straw that is crosswise will spin in the direction of the stem.

Where’s the camera?

So before the rain settled in this week we decided to test our melon.

With two broom straws in hand, we headed to our little backyard garden.

Looking around to see if anyone was watching, I placed the straws on the melon as directed.

The crosswise straw vibrated as soon as I laid in down. We watched a few seconds and bam! That straw moved clockwise to parallel the other straw.

We stood with our mouths hanging open like we were waiting for some manna from a mother bird.

Oh my goodness.

Then I was reminded about dowsing for water and how two sticks or rods are used to find ground water.

Since a watermelon is primarily water, it’s perhaps based on the same theory.

After our melon was chilled, we sliced into it and found the sweetest melon ever!

I started trying to remember some of my grandmother’s tales and came up with very few.

One was ‘wart witchery.’ She said her grandmother was a wart witch and bequeathed her knowledge to my grandmother, who then handed it down to me.

Apparently a skeptical wart-bearing subject will nullify ‘the spell’. However, some of my subjects have had success.

I know there is a wealth of information out there that is dying out.

Do you remember any of your parents’ or grandparents’ remedies, sayings or tales?

Drop me an e-mail at bbarnes@cynthianademocrat .com or visit us on facebook and leave a comment. If I get enough response I’ll pass those along in a few weeks.

In the meantime, if you have a persistent cough at night, rub Vicks vapo-rub on the bottom of your feet and put on a pair of socks. Sweet dreams.