The Best Berry!

It was the summer of sixty-nine. I would have only been about nine years old and we had just moved into an older farmhouse in Connecticut that was surrounded by barns and strawberry fields. Corn fields were across from us on the other side of the road. It was a house that we rented from a landlord that was a farmer. I remember him as a kind, older man...always rather jolly and joking around. He had strawberry fields behind the house and barns. He sold his strawberries on the side of the road and I believe also, to the local stores. He needed people to help pick those berries for him so my sister and I had an instant ready- made summer job! We got paid ten cents per basket that we picked. We picked from early morning til the sun went down... but I have to say I loved it and I wish I could do that today! His strawberries were the best berries I have ever tasted anywhere! To this day... I have not had one that even comes close to the taste I still remember! It was always well worth the hard, tedious labor in that hot humid sun....for at the end of each long day, we would get to tally up how many baskets we had each picked for the day and he would dole out the cash. I remember that feeling of accomplishment and how proud I was that I had earned my own money! I had a secret place where I hid mine and would save it up for school clothes and other extra things that I needed or wanted. Some of it would come in handy when we took our usual trip up to Maine for the later part of summer after strawberry season was over. That strawberry field looked so beautiful from the bathroom window of the farmhouse. I could look out and see the many rows of green vibrant bushes  with the narrow bit of brown in the middle of each row.The scent as you would go outside would be wonderful. The scent of fresh strawberries! They were usually ready in Connecticut around the end of June sometimes a little earlier; So just as school was ending....perfect time for a summer job. I remember his berries were very big berries for some reason. Maybe he had some secret, who knows?  I recall holding one of these huge red berries up, and showing it off to him and exclaiming how big it was! He told me to "Just eat that one" it was too good to put into the basket! And how sweet it was too! I remember him for not being a stingy old man...he was kindhearted and let us enjoy the fruit of our labor! That made an impression on me, that simple little act of kindness... of letting me eat the best berry of the bunch.
Psalm 128:2 "For thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands: happy shalt thou be and it will be well with thee."