It’s Watermelon Time

By Regina Garson
The other day, I cut into my first watermelon of the season. I totally love watermelon. I mean love, love, love watermelon and it really is good for you. It helps you stay hydrated too, which is a major big deal during these hot Southern summers. You will definitely find it on my dinner table now and then.

Watermelon was different when I was a kid though. It wasn’t so much a part of a meal as it was a celebration. I mean a party. A real one. A nice big watermelon was as good an excuse as any for a little get-together.

Although some will argue that watermelons are not nearly as good as they used to be, that is not what I am talking about.  I don’t mean that the watermelon itself was different, I mean that the culture surrounding its consumption was different, very different, most especially in the South among country folks.

You did not just go to the store, buy a watermelon, cut it up and put it in a bowl on the table for dinner. Cutting a watermelon was a social event that seldom involved a bowl in the middle of a dinner table.

We’d all be sitting around, and say, for example, my Aunt Billie Sue, who lived down the hill from us when I was growing up, would say, “I got a watermelon and I am thinking about cutting it.” Our eyes would light up. We would gather around, listening for the details to make sure we did not miss a bite. She would think a minute and say, “Well, I was thinking about cutting it around 3:00,” or maybe on “Sunday afternoon after church,” or something like that.

Then she would ask, “Do y’all think you can be there?”

As if

I am not sure that she really needed to ask.

We would be looking at the clock all day thinking about that watermelon. When it started getting close to time, we would head out the door. A watermelon cutting is not something you would even think about being late for.

My Aunt Billie Sue would have the biggest watermelon you have ever laid your eyes on sitting out on the back porch. She would have a stack of old newspapers to contain the looming mess, and she would have a nice big knife already picked out to do the cutting.

Now, when you go to a watermelon cutting, you do not arrive to see a watermelon already cut up and laid out on fancy trays. That is not what a watermelon cutting is about. Everybody gathers around the watermelon to watch it being cut. The host/hostess takes the knife, carefully plunges it into the center of the watermelon, and then cuts it in a straight line down the middle to both ends.

After that, he/she takes hold of the two sides and carefully pries the watermelon open. At this point, all eyes are on the middle of the melon. Will it be a good one, red, juicy and sweet, or maybe not quite red yet, on the pink side, not quite as sweet? Whether it was a really good dark red or on the pink side with a ways to go before it was honestly ripe, none of that meant that a single bite would be wasted.

It could be that is why I don’t put a whole lot of stock in folks saying that watermelons aren’t what they used to be. As long as I can remember, there has always been an element of a gamble when it comes to watermelon.

So, with all eyes on the watermelon, we would all wait for the instant when my Aunt Billie Sue pulled it apart so we could see the inside.

There would be ooh’s and ah’s if it was a nice red one. Those were the absolute sweetest of all, the redder they are, the sweeter they will be. There would be some very audible moans if it was still on the pink side. It would not be quite as good, but it would still be worth eating. Either way, as soon as we saw what kind of eating we were in for, we attempted to line up politely for our slice. More like fell over each other to see who got the first slice.

All the cousins would turn up for a watermelon cutting. Aunt Billie Sue would look around and count how many people were there and then she’d start measuring and slicing off chunks. We’d sit on the side of the porch and eat that watermelon right out of our hands. She’d always hand us a piece of newspaper to encourage us to not make quite such a mess, but I am not sure how successful that was.

Spitting Seeds

We’d eat watermelon until we couldn’t hold another bite. Then, the seed spitting would begin. I never was the best seed spitter in the group, but some folks could spit those seeds quite a distance.

Those were some good times. It is not like watermelon doesn’t deserve a place on the dinner table. It is really quite nutritious, but eating a serving of fruit with your meal because it is good for you is not quite the same as sitting on the side of the porch with watermelon juice running down your shirt, while you nosh on that sweet red melon and top it all with a seed spitting contest for dessert.

Do Not Swallow the Seeds

And don’t forget the ever-present admonition not to swallow a watermelon seed. You do know what happens when you swallow a watermelon seed? I saw a woman the other day who very clearly did not get the memo about making sure she spit all of her watermelon seeds out. Would somebody please tell these folks not to swallow the seeds.

Spiking a Watermelon

My love for a good watermelon did not diminish when I grew up and hit college. Not one little bit. That is when you learn about plugs and spiking melons. Although I do admit, it always sounded fun and quite appealing, and we did indeed try it a time or two, I prefer my watermelon plain and unadulterated, no salt either. But if you really would like to spike a watermelon, here is a link with the directions for spiking a melon.

Picking a Good Watermelon

I grew up out in the country and country folks used to grow their own. But whether you get your melon from a field or from a store, there is definitely a trick to picking out a good one. My granddaddy, “Pa Bill” Pickett, taught me how to pick one out when I was not quite knee-high to a grasshopper. You will hear all kinds of folks telling you all kinds of ways to pick one out, but my Pa Bill was a melon thumper. I am too. Pa Bill raised his own melons. He’d be out in the field, going from melon to melon, thumping until he found one that was just right. I’d be tagging right along behind him, listening and thumping, and thumping and listening.

The trick is to listen for a hollow sound. You knock on the melon like you are knocking on a door, not too hard, just a little knock. You want to listen hard to that knock. The best watermelons have a hollow sound to them. If you are at the store or a farmers’ market and they have a load of melons, what you want to do is thump on a few to see how they sound. Get used to the feel and the sound of the knock. The best ones in the group will be the ones that have a hollow sound to them. If you’ve never thumped melons before, it is going to take a little practice. Any time you get a chance, do a little watermelon thumping, you’ll get the hang of it.

When you find one that sounds good and hollow, that is going to be your best bet of the group. Sometimes we all miss though. Even Pa Bill would pick a dud every now and then, and he thumped them all his life. But anyway, give it your best hollow knocking shot, take the hollowest sounding one you can find home, and put it in the refrigerator until it gets ice cold. Then, tell all the kiddos to come quick and help you cut into that thing. If it is not as red as you would have liked, the leftovers will work just fine in a bowl at dinner, and it is still an excellent opportunity to teach the kids how to spit watermelon seeds!

Until next time, live your day well and have a good life!

The images are from Pixabay, stock photo service.