Aww, Shucks!

I had corn on the cob over the weekend.  It's one of my favorite things about summer and it reminded me of summers past.  I've mentioned my dad grew up on a small farm.  While I was growing up, he and his siblings leased the fields out to a local farmer.  As rent, the farmer paid the property taxes and planted a section of  "sweet corn" for us (as opposed to the "field corn" he grew to sell).

Every August we made a special trip (or three) to the farm to pick corn.  Usually it was a Saturday evening, after a day full of chores.  By the time I was 11, I knew to take a long-sleeve shirt along to wear in the field.  It was too hot for long sleeves, but the stems sticking out from the stalk were very itchy on my skin--and occasionally the edges of them caused what felt like paper cuts.  We'd work until dark, sometimes a little beyond that.

On the way home we'd stop at the homes of various friends and give them each a paper bag full of fresh-picked corn.  After church on Sunday morning we (but honestly, mostly me) would sit in the shade, shucking corn for HOURS.  My mom and sisters stayed busy in the kitchen, blanching the shucked ears of corn and bagging them to be frozen.  

It's a nice memory, but my favorite part is that each year I exasperated my dad.  He preferred younger, more tender ears of corn.  Each year he'd show me one and each year get annoyed when I'd go on to pick an assortment of younger and more developed ears.  He'd remind me he didn't like the older ears and say I would have to eat them.  And I'd smile.

He thought I was simply picking every ear in sight.  I wasn't.  He never figured out that I preferred the more mature, more developed ears of corn.  So I picked some of what he and the rest of the family liked and some of what I liked.

I've never been one to go with the crowd on anything--which I think now exasperates my boss a little.  Some things never change.   :)