Lesson 9 Childhood

1、One evening my daughter came to pick me up from the country; I had been expecting her for several hours. Almost as soon as she came through the door I asked if she knew how potatoes look before they are dug out of the ground. She wasn’t sure.“Then I will show you in the morning before we head back to the city,” I told her.

2、I had begun to harvest my potato crop the day before. In the spring I planted five varieties: my favorite, Yellow Finn; Yukon Gold; Peruvian Purple; Irish White; and Red New. Even though the summer had been chilly and there was morning shade from the large oak ① at the front of the garden, the potatoes came up quickly and developed into healthy plants. Jose, who helps me in the garden, had shoveled ② an extra collar of humus ③ around each plant, and I was delighted as each of them began to bloom. It had been years since I planted potatoes. I planted them in the garden I’d previously devoted to corn, because I have a schedule that often means I am far away from my garden at just the time my corn becomes ripe. Having sped home to my garden three years in a row to a plot of overmatured, tasteless corn, I decided to plant potatoes instead, thinking the worst that could happen, if I was delayed elsewhere, would be a handful of potatoes nibbled by gophers or moles.

3、I had been dreading going back to the city, where I had more things to do than I cared to think about; I sat in the swing on the deck ④ thinking hard about what would be my last supper in the country. I had bought some green peas from the roadside stand a few miles from my house, chard and kale were flourishing a few steps from my door,and I had brought up corn from a small hopeful planting in a lower garden. Tasting the corn, however, I discovered it had, as I’d feared, given up its sweetness and turned into starch. Then I remembered my potatoes! Grabbing a shovel, I went out to the garden and began to dig. The experience I had had digging the potatoes, before turning them into half of a delicious meal, was one I wanted my daughter to know.

4、After boiling, I ate my newly dug potatoes, several small Yellow Finns and two larger Peruvian Purples, with only a dressing of butter. Organic butter with a dash of sea salt—that reminded me of the butter my mother and grandmother used to make. As I ate the mouth-watering meal, I remembered them sitting patiently beside the brown or creamy white churn ⑤ , moving the dasher up and down in a steady rhythmic ⑥ motion until lines of butter appeared at the top of the milk. These lines grew until eventually there was enough butter to make a small mound. We owned a beautiful handcrafted butter press. It was sometimes my job to press its wooden carving of flowers into the hardening butter, making a cheerful and elegant design.

5、In the morning, just before packing the car for the ride to the city, I harvested an abundance of Chardonnay grapes, greenish silver and refreshingly sweet, a bucket of glistening eggplants, an armful of collards and chard and kale, some dark green and snake-like cucumbers, plus a small sack of figs and half a dozen late-summer peaches.Then I took my daughter out to the neat rows of potatoes, all beginning to turn brown.Using the shovel to scrape ⑦ aside the dirt, I began to reveal, very slowly and carefully,the golden and purple potatoes that rested just beneath the plants. She was enchanted.It’s just like…it’s just like…she said. It’s just like finding gold, I completed her thought.Yes! she said, her eyes wide.

6、Though my daughter is now thirty-one, her enthusiasm reminded me of my own when I was probably no more than three. My parents, exemplary ⑧ farmers and producers of fine produce in garden and field, had enchanted me early in just this same way.As I scraped dirt aside from another potato plant and watched as my daughter began to fill her skirt with our treasure, I was taken back to a time when I was very young, perhaps too young even to speak. The very first memory I have is certainly preverbal ⑨ ;I was lifted up by my father or an older brother, very large and dark and shining men,and encouraged to pick red plums from a heavily bearing tree. The next is of going with my parents, in a farm wagon, to a watermelon patch that in memory seems to have been planted underneath pine trees. A farmer myself now, I realize this couldn’t have been true. It is likely that to get to the watermelon patch we had to go through the pines. In any case, and perhaps this was preverbal as well, I remember the absolute wonder of rolling along in a creaky wooden wagon that was pulled by obedient if indifferent mules, arriving at a vast field, and being taken down and placed out of the way as my brothers and parents began to find watermelon after watermelon and to bring them back, apparently, as gifts for me! In a short time the wagon was filled with large green watermelons. And there were still dozens more left to grow larger, in the field! How had this happened? What miracle was this?

7、As soon as they finished filling the wagon, my father broke open a gigantic melon right on the spot. The “spot” being a handy boulder ⑩ as broad as a table that happened to reside there, underneath the shady pines, beside the field. We were all given pieces of its delicious red and thirst-quenching heart. He then carefully, from my piece, removed all the glossy black seeds. If you eat one of these, he joked, poking at my protruding tummy, a watermelon just like this will grow inside you.

8、It will? My eyes were probably huge. I must have looked shocked.

9、Everyone laughed.

10、If you put the seed into the ground, it will grow, said an older brother, who could never bear to see me deceived. That’s how all of these watermelons came to be here.We planted them.

11、It seemed too wonderful for words. Too incredible to be believed. One thing seemed as astonishing as another. That a watermelon could grow inside me if I ate a seed, and that watermelons grew from seeds put in the ground!

12、When I think of my childhood at its best, it is of this magic that I think. Of having a family that daily worked with nature to produce the extraordinary, and yet they were all so casual about it, and never failed to find my wonderment amusing. Years later I would write poems and essays about the way growing up in the country seemed the best of all possible worlds, regardless of the hardships that made getting by year to year, especially for a family of color in the South half a century ago, a heroic affair.

(1,198 words)

Exercises

Ⅰ. How well did you read?

1. [Find the main idea] Which of the following sentences could serve as the main idea of the essay?

A. Years later I would write poems and essays about the way growing up in the country seemed the best of all possible worlds, regardless of the hardships that made getting by year to year, especially for a family of color in the South half a century ago, a heroic affair.

B. When I think of my childhood at its best, it is of this magic that I think.

C. If you put the seed into the ground, it will grow.

D. The experience I had had digging the potatoes, before turning them into half of a delicious meal, was one I wanted my daughter to know.

2. [Find the reason] The author says “digging a potato is like finding gold” because ______.

A. she connects the activity to her childhood experiences

B. she knew exactly what her daughter felt

C. the magic of life and growth is precious

D. all of the above

3. [Determine the purpose] The title is called “Childhood” even though the author talks about the present in the first five paragraphs. What is the purpose of the first five paragraphs?

A. To reflect on how bored urban life could be.

B. To imply that she is familiar with farming since she spent her childhood on a farm.

C. To elaborate on the details of her farming and cooking experiences.

D. To emphasize how important potatoes are to her.

4. [Check the details] When the author thinks about her childhood, she thinks of the following EXCEPT ______.

A. the sweet moments she spent with her family

B. the magic of a seed growing into a melon

C. the hardship a family of color experiences

D. the things that seem unbelievable for a young kid

5. [Understand the attitude] The author’s attitude towards going back to the city was ______.

A. expectant B. reluctant C. pleasant D. hesitant

6. [Find the similarity] The author and her daughter’s response to digging potatoes reveals ______for them.

A. the activity is of equal significance

B. the goodness of the potatoes remained the same

C. potato was an all-time favorite

D. the experience was equally new

7. [Guess the background] Based on the text, the author’s identity is ______.

A. a famous writer B. a black worker

C. an experienced farmer D. a devoted mother

8. [Find the reason] Why did the author’s family “never failed to find her wonderment amusing”?

A. Because they loved the innocence of their daughter.

B. Because she was trying to entertain the family.

C. Because it was such obvious fact that she did not know.

D. Because it was their only amusement in a harsh life.

Ⅱ. Read for words and expressions:

1. Choose one best paraphrase for the underlined words.

(1) I had been dreading going back to the city, where I had more things to do than I cared to think about. (Para. 3, line 1)

A. dreaming B. fearing C. refusing

(2) She was enchanted. (Para. 5, line 7)

A. surprised B. amused C. fascinated

(3) If you eat one of these, he joked, poking at my protruding tummy, a watermelon just like this will grow inside you. (Para. 7, line 5)

A. hanging out B. sticking out C. falling out

2. Choose one best paraphrase for the underlined expression.

In any case, and perhaps this was preverbal as well, … (Para. 6, line 12)

A. Although B. Besides C. Anyhow