Granny ....yep she was something else. Elle Mae's cookies would have worked....just taken a bit longer....
Seems like Dave and I have more in common than I thought....
I didn't find out until some years later, this particular mellon patch ....sort of a rite of passage. The old boy was shooting "up and over"....the sound of a 12 bore and the load raining down supposed to teach kids something. Learned to stay low, keep eyes toward the farmhouse, run fast, jump fences and ditches.
I had a Uncle that had to have birdshot removed from his "backside". His daddy thought he was stealing mellons....NOPE . My Uncle was in town running errands, stopped to watch the blacksmith ( facinated him ) , anyway while shooing a horse somehow the loaded single shot kept handy got knocked over and discharged....pellets ricocheted , hitting my Uncle.
After the pellets were removed, ( in town the local doc checked him out) ....he got a Belt applied to his "good side" of backside. His daddy was drunk by the time he got home .
Now his daddy was not so much upset he was stealing mellons....He was upset because "the boy" had holes in the seat of them overalls, late getting home with the whiskey and the other stuff he was getting in town, and figured he might owe the local doc for services. Oh...he was supposed to back in time in time to help his momma and smaller sibs get some work done in the garden.... That Uncle had a hard time growing up being the eldest and all...with a daddy like that...
Took a few days for a neighbor to verify his story...living out in the country , news didn't always travel fast.