Autumn.
It’s the time of year when the black walnut trees start to drop their fruit onto the ground. Some people pick them up and sell them to the local hulling station. Others just let them rot on the ground. We had at least ten black walnut trees around our house growing up.
My parents had an outdoor furnace just outside their back door. At some point, probably before I was born, Dad built a shed with a concrete floor specifically for the furnace. We’d pick up the black walnuts and put them on the floor in front of the furnace. I remember going inside on frigid winter days with a hammer to crack open some walnuts after we’d played outside for a while and needed a snack.
Of course, we didn’t appreciate the smell they left on our hands, but the meat tasted amazing.
The best use for the black walnut is not what you may think. They are good for eating. But its best use is as a hand grenade.
Yes, a hand grenade. As boys, we served in the Armed Forces and used whatever natural elements necessary to achieve our victory.
Black walnuts come in chemical, stun, and fragmentation. And the effectiveness doesn’t come from the type it is. Its potency comes from how far you can rear back and how hard you can throw the sucker.
Being the older brother, I could rear back much further. And being older, I could throw harder.
At times, my brother seem to be caught in friendly fire. Purely accidental, of course. But it always seemed to be when he was walking away after an argument.
One time, I caught him in the middle of his back with the black walnut white phosphorus grenade.
Although three years younger and noticeably weaker, he seemed to have a short fuse, a temper a mile wide, an extremely accurate throw, and an ability to reload within a half-second.
Thankfully, I could run fast. And being pummeled with hard-shelled walnuts seemed to help me get away quicker than usual.
So we had some great times on the battlefields of boyhood. All because of black walnut trees.
to the days of autumn past,
– Caleb
caneymountainblog.com 