One thing that I look forward to every summer is diving into a freshly cut cantaloupe. Although I would much rather eat a honeydew melon, I eat cantaloupe on account of my grandmother. Every year my grandmother had the hook up on the cantaloupes. Being the hoochie-hoe that my grandmother was she always made friends with men. My mother and I used to joke about how she was always flirting, my grandmother had no shame. One particular year she made “friends” with her hairdressers husband. He drove a fruit truck that just so happened to be cantaloupes. Every year she would hit this man up for as many cantaloupes she could get into the trunk of her car. And of course being the flirt that she was, she would get all of these cantaloupes for free! So every summer my grandmother and I would live on the diet of free cantaloupes. For some reason the cantaloupes my grandmother seemed to muster out of the man were always the best cantaloupes. And to this day I am still unable to pick a cantaloupe like my grandmother could.

Every year when the cantaloupes are in season, I run to the store and get a few just to remember my grandmother by. Cantaloupes were “our thing”. Even though the ones that I pick up are not nearly as good as the ones grandma would get, they still make me think of her and that is my goal whenever I eat a cantaloupe.

So thank you grandma for instilling this awesome tradition with me. I will continue to keep this tradition alive even though you have since left us to go to a better place.