My sweet ex-mother-in-law is a real heath nut. She was buying local and organic and composting way before the rest of us even knew what it was, let alone thought it was cool and were trying to do it. She would send "ants on a log" (celery with peanut butter and raisins) to school for birthday snacks way back in the 70's when the rest of us were getting to take cookies made with Crisco.
We went on an family vacation, and extended family vacation. (not a family - extended vacation). It was essentially just a long weekend to the local national park, but it was fun and we were all very excited to go. We drove up separately and then toured around the park all together in the big family custom van. My ex-MIL brought all her food with her for this trip since she was not going to eat processed food in any restaurants and make herself sick while on her vacation. And so she brought with her some cantaloupe; more than a couple.
It wasn't so bad the first day or so, but by the second day, after sitting in the back of the hot custom van and becoming even more and more ripe in the heat those melons were fragrant! I vividly remember us all stuffed into the van, definitely exceeding the legal passenger limit, speeding along the winding hills up the mountain side to get to a look out peak and those melons thumping along in the back cargo space like heads in the duffle bag of a mob boss.
We giggled in the very back third row seat as silently as we could suffer all the way to the top of the mountain. We got out and hiked around and giggled some more, but when it came time to get back into that hot air conditioning-less van it was more that we could do silently. It was time to make a choice, it was the cantaloupes or us, but we both weren't going to make it home.
Obviously since I am the one telling the story, you know who won. We still don't sit down as a family and enjoy this melon without someone telling the story and we all remembering what a fun time it was.
We also send this photo around to the family once it a while. Because this is exactly what it felt like to me.
