CORN

PHOTO: Me, LuLu and our corn.

THE LULU CHRONICLES

LuLu-ism #26: Vegetables should not be scary.

LuLu and I were tooling down a nice shady lane the other day enjoying ourselves when I realized there wasn’t a tree in sight or a cloud or anything, so where was all the shade coming from? It’s the end of summer and in Wisconsin our corn crop is at it’s peak; and out in the country where I live, corn rules and apparently, provides shade. No fooling. The corn was so tall all around me that I started to get spooked. Ever thought about how many movies have corn as the theme? Children of the Corn, Field of Dreams, whatever that Mel Gibson movie was a few years ago where aliens did their artwork in the cornfields with that long deadly toenail? Seriously, what is it about a field of corn that brings out the Carrie in us?

I remember once when I was about seven or eight visiting my aunt and uncle in Tennessee. They lived miles out into nowhere. As the grown ups visited, I started wandering around. For whatever reason, they had a pen of turkeys out back that drew my attention. Ever see that bird up close? Ug-gu-lee, folks. They also had a bunch of free roaming chickens. I don’t know what it is about me, but even at a young age, chickens sensed something in me that riled their feathers. The rooster took offense at my seven-year-old self and decided to impress the ladies by pecking at my shoelaces. Of course that scared the bajeebies out of me and I took off running—straight into a cornfield. When the rooster finally gave up chase, I had no idea which way was up. I could see nothing but cornstalks. After about what seemed like seventy-two hours, I emerged from the cornfield sweaty, tear stained and minus my shoelaces. I ran to my mother knowing she must be sick with worry because I had been missing for days, right? Nope. She didn’t even know I was gone, but she did want to know what had happened to my shoelaces.

Corn. It gives us fodder for some pretty awful movies. But in late summer it also can be manna from heaven roasted on the grill and dipped in an old coffee can of melted butter… and it makes great shade.

Who made the corn? God did. Nice idea don’t you think?

Later,

deb