Oh, yes, I know exactly what red clay looks like. We, too, have a brick factory not too far up the road. Sells nationwide, so we have better dirt for brick than for gardening.
My backyard clay is grey. The regular old stuff. My parents used to have a pretty nice garden when I was a child, but I can't remember how they did it. Am sure they hipped up the rows.
I was the first commercial pumpkin grower in town. I think I was 11 years old. Made around $20 that first year in my backyard clay-ground enterprise. An older friend, who was just out of high school then, bought one of my prized pumpkins for his girlfriend. For some reason it didn't suit her, and they exchanged it. The exchange didn't suit either, so they traded back for the original. It was a convoluted deal, but all were happy in the end, and it sure felt good having those three dollars in my pocket.
That same friend has just retired from the military and has just now started a magazine near here. He printed that story in the December issue. He was also the first to print a baseball and sports memorabelia (sp) trading magazine, in the mid '60s, printed on an old memeograph machine. I worked for him for fifty cents an hour, in trade. No telling how many hundreds of thousands of dollars worth (by today's market) of cards passed through my hands at that time. I was the official baseball card sorter. I think you could still buy a 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie for around $2. The best price I've heard for it recently, in gem mint, perfectly centered condition, was $50,000.
I should have traded that pumpkin for a Mantle rookie, and could have had an extra doller for the trade to boot.
Don
Don