Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, November 21, 1939

To Market… Attracted by a stall that seemed to specialize in gourd. I went inside. Here I saw a curious object, that seemed as if it were someone’s prank – two squashes cleverly joined together. I learned however that it was a real gourd – The Turk’s Cap.

I found other curious gourds here; - the Dolphin, which had an uncanny resemblance to that creature, - as well as curious types of dipper & bottle-necks gourds. One of the latter group which I had to buy, had all the feeling of a chaste Greek vase. The proprietor, told me he had been raising gourds since he was seven years old. He came from Sandusky, Ohio where he spent his boyhood. He related how one year, he built a crude arbor at the back of his home, over a bench.

His father, who worked on the iron docks, had a basin out there, and was accustomed to washing off the worst of his day’s grime, throwing the dirty water out over the gourd garden. The first few times, the boy “gourd-financier” was aghast, and feared for his plants, but presently he noticed the vines were extraordinarily large and healthy; before the summer was over it was no longer possible to sit on the bench, the gourds hung down so low (Ten feet long for Hercules clubs and other gourds too big to put in a bushel basket – (a bit of an exaggeration, I felt!) He attributed their unusual growth to the soap and iron-ore dust. That year he received first prize at the county fair.

Charles E. Burchfield, November 21, 1939