I don’t know where watermelons came from but I do know I grew up in a farming town where the biggest crop was watermelons and I pitched , picked and otherwise loaded watermelons for all of my youth, I was told it character building back then all I know it was hot and tiring work
I told this story, no-one else had ever heard it, at our family reunion and was amazed when one of the younger people found reference to it in the Dothan Eagle newspaper from the fifties on her phone.
Carthage...MO.
Fried chicken and watermelon, Gods gift on a summer afternoon.
And TITTSWORTH melons grown near Barry, Il, among the very best to be had.
When I was growing up, watermelons were only available in the summer and there were only two varieties, Klondike, which were dark green and Rattlesnake, which had light green and white stripes. The Rattlesnakes, which came out in late August and early September, were preferred.
I love melon, all melon.
I don’t know if this is true or not, but I heard it on Paul Harvey many years ago:
A farmer that grew watermelons was getting tired of the local college frats stealing his watermelons for their frat parties.
One year he got an idea. He put up a sign by the road beside his field that read:
ATTENTION!!!
One of these watermelons is
POISONED!!!
Proceed at you own risk.
That night went by and no watermelons were stolen.
Then another night.
The next morning a NEW SIGN appeared next to his sign, which read:
ATTENTION!!!
TWO of these watermelons is
POISONED!!!
Proceed at your own risk...........................
Everyone knows that watermelons come from Rocky Ford, Colorado.
We ate our watermelons on a picnic table in the backyard. The slats on the top allowed the juice to drip through to the grass below. Much less of a mess than eating it in the house.
I don’t know if it is a practice elsewhere but in Texas—we always put salt on the melons. :-)
I know that cantaloupes i come from Cantaloupe Island. St. Herbie told me so.
As a young man, during the 40’s & 50’s, I was always attracted by melons...
Although, a few times, that led to getting my face slapped...
Great post!
I had thought since I was a child that water melons were members of the squash family.
But my gardening as and adult and my absolute luv of lemon cucumbers proved to me that watermelons are more closely related to curcurbit sativa!
I don’t get it. I’ve known that for at least sixty years.