They have to be one of the great fruits of the vine. They are as much a part of life in the South as field peas, blackberries and corn on the cob. It is difficult to find a person who does not like watermelon, and tales of young boys raiding a neighbor's watermelon patch are certainly a part of growing up in rural Mississippi.
True, watermelons are no longer planted as they were when I was a child. Watermelons today are, for the most part, grown scientifically on large irrigated farms, with genetically improved seeds and just the proper amount of fertilizer.
Papa planted melons with seeds he had saved from the biggest, most perfect melons that he had grown the previous year. The seeds were saved, dried, and placed in an old stocking which hung from a rafter on the back porch. These seeds were planted on the full moon, Good Friday or by instructions of the Greer's Almanac.
Today planting of melons is no longer a family affair. Melons were planted on a choice plot always reserved for the watermelon patch. No longer do children make a daily check on the largest melon in the patch waiting with anticipation of the day when their father gave the melon one final thumping. If the thump sounded just right and the curl of the stem seemed to have begun drying, Papa would declare that the melon would be just right for the Fourth of July.
Papa could make predictions about melons, and most of the time he was right. He might say, "This one has white streaks through it from too much rain," or he might say, "This one is from a volunteer plant, and it might have mixed with the gourds, so we will feed it to the cows."
Every family who grew watermelons wanted to have ripe melons for the Fourth of July. Melons were worked and watched through the hot sweltering days of late May and June with the hope that they would be ready for cutting on the Fourth. Perhaps what made having ripe melons so important was the fact that the cutting of watermelons on this holiday was the only recognition of Independence Day .
When melons were at the peak of ripeness, they were taken from the vine and brought to the house. Now came the task of finding a cool place to store them so that they would keep for several days. If the back porch was shady, they were lined up there. Some folks brought them inside the house and stored them under a bed or even in the entrance hall.
There was a time when every part of the melon was utilized. When the delicious red meat was eaten, the seeds were saved and so was the rind. If the rind was a good, thick one, it was peeled, cut into squares, and soaked in an alum solution until it became firm. After being thoroughly washed in cold water, the rind was cooked along with an ample amount of sugar until it became opaque. These tasty bits of rind were known as watermelon rind preserves and were delicious with meat or on a toasted piece of bread.
When I was a child, we lived near a railroad sidetrack. Many of the farmers in our community grew melons for the market. We children knew when we saw several freight cars being moved onto the sidetrack that in a short time wagons of melons would be loaded and shipped to markets in the North.
First, a layer of straw or hay was placed in the bottom of the freight car. Then the first layer of melons was placed close enough not to move. Next, another layer of straw went in followed by a second layer of melons. The melons were never stacked over two or three deep because those on the bottom could be crushed by the weight of those above. While the melons were being loaded, we children hung around the freight cars waiting for a melon to be dropped or discarded. If this happened, we would squat by the railroad track and eat our fill of watermelon.
We even knew riddles about watermelons. Here is a watermelon riddle: "I was down in the field/And found a little green house/ In it was a little white house/ In that, a little red house/ And in the red house were a lot of little people/ What am I?"
Sometimes we cut a thin slice of the white part of the rind and cut a set of false teeth. The upper set was not hard to make, but to keep both an upper set and lower set in the mouth often proved difficult.
We also played war with a mouthful of melon seeds. The object of the game was not to be hit by a flying seed ejected from the mouth of a player on the other team. Some children mastered the art of spitting seeds and could fire them like bullets from a machine gun.
As an adult, I learned that many decorative items could be made from watermelon. Down on the farm, we simply cut boat-shaped slices from the melon and then cut sections out with a knife or ate it with a spoon.
Today in more formal situations, melon is served carved into little pink or red melon balls placed on fine china to be eaten with silver forks. It is also interesting to serve mixed fruit from a melon that has been shaped like a basket. No matter the occasion, when I eat watermelon today, it never tastes as good as when I was a child and we cut a melon on the back porch and scraped the boat-shaped rind for the last drop of sweet juice.
