The speaker is an adult looking back on his rural childhood experiences. As a young boy, he possesses a deep, sensory connection to the outdoors and an intense enthusiasm for the annual blackberry harvest. He approaches the task with a mix of reverence and greed, treating the first ripe berry as a profound experience before giving in to the urge to hoard as many as possible.

The childhood companions of the speaker who join him in the late summer tradition of blackberry picking. They arm themselves with whatever receptacles they can find, from milk cans to jam-pots. Together, they scour the surrounding agricultural fields, enduring thorn scratches and sticky hands to collect a massive bounty of fruit.