They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)
Happy Thursday! I hope everyone is having a D.O.P.E. week! If not you can easily change that by visiting the D.O.P.E. products page(you know you want to!) I struggled coming up with a story today until about 5 minutes ago. Actually I had an entire story that I just deleted because I didn’t like it. This week’s background soundtrack helped out a lot. With that being said let’s go back to 1992.
Tomatoes were the first thing I ever grew. I won’t tell the entire story.If you want to know click on the about tab, then click founder. Summer 1992 was the first time I grew tomatoes, lots of tomatoes. My grandfather took notice of my tomato growing abilities, and decided to contribute to my green thumb. He purchased okra and pepper seedlings one day, and we planted them outside together. The D.O.P.E. part about all of this besides growing food, is that I got to spend time with my grandfather. If I inherited my “green thumb” from my grandmother. My grandfather was the one who encouraged me to use it. The entire summer of 1992 we experimented with every plant we could think of. If I said “Pop we should try…” The next day we were planting it.
I don’t think “Pop” was eating all the tomatoes that I was growing, because he developed prostate cancer later that year. Tomatoes are rich in lycopene(which gives them the red color), and studies have shown that lycopene may lower the risk of prostate cancer by 30-40 percent.
Luckily “Pop” didn’t die from cancer, but it was a wake up call. I’d never seen him even cough, so to hear he had cancer was a shock. He made major lifestyle changes afterwards, and although I was growing older I cherished our time together more. When I was a senior in high school the “Relay For Life” walk was at my school. The first lap was for survivors, and this was the first time my grandfather chose to participate. After the first lap, all others are allowed to begin walking/running as well. “Pop” finished his lap, and I started walking next to him. He looked at me and said “Let’s see if you can keep up.” So we walked in silence next to each other for 2 miles. Then he said “Alright I’m going home now.” To which I replied “Alright Pop, be cool.”
My grandfather John Harris, Jr in my opinion was the greatest man to ever walk the face of this Earth. Did he have his flaws, yes of course. He wasn’t perfect but he” took me from a boy to man so I always had a father when my biological didn’t bother.” He taught me how to shave, and how to shine my shoes. He gave me my weekly allowance. He supported everything I ever did. My junior year of college the financial aid office was being funny with the money. So my grandfather gave me an envelope with enough cash in it to cover my tuition, dorm fees, and meal plan. I could go on and on. He noticed I had a talent and he encouraged me to use that talent in his words for “Self preservation, that’s the first law of nature.”
As a black man who turns 40 in six months, I’m scheduled for my first prostate exam. Numbers have shown that black men are 50 percent more likely to develop prostate cancer and twice as likely to die from it. Am I looking forward to the exam..not really. But when you know better, you do better. And my grandfather taught me better. Every tomato variety I see, I think of him. When I realize that I’ve planted 10 tomato plants, I think of him. When I’m alone and surrounded by okra,peppers,watermelon, and tomatoes I really think of him. I don’t know what heaven is like, but if I’m lucky I’ll be able to plant some tomatoes with my grandfather again when I get there…...This story was D.O.P.E.
(This story was written as “Mecca And The Soul Brother” by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth served as the background soundtrack. Released June 9th, 1992)
