Fruit Inspection

To me there is nothing better than slicing up a fresh, juicy watermelon on a hot summer afternoon. Sure, watermelon alone is very delicious, but for me, everytime I take a bite, especially one that contains a seed, I have memories that come flooding back, making each mouthful that much sweeter!

Grandma Mary. For anyone reading this that was lucky enough to know her, you know what I am talking about. For everyone else, let me explain.

There wasn’t a summer that went by that she didn’t buy a watermelon. While she was cutting it into thick, mouth-watering slices, much bigger than I would be allowed at home, with the biggest kitchen knife I had ever seen, she would talk about how much she loved to eat watermelon.

She’d talk about eating watermelon when she was a young girl and explain how she and her sisters would have seed spitting contests. Then she would challenge anyone sitting on the front porch with her to a match, confident in her seed spitting skills.

“Heavenly Days Magee!!!” she would exclaim as I slobbered and sputtered and my seeds fell at my feet. We’d laugh and laugh. By the time we were through, her front porch was covered with sticky black seeds, and in genuine Grandma Mary style, nothing was ever said about the mess.

But the best memory of all is one from the summer when I was about 8 or 9 years old. My favorite past time that year was torturing my younger sister and for some reason, everyone was on my case about it! So there we were, Gram and Jessica and myself, eating watermelon slices in the front porch swing. As the swing was on the forward motion, we would try to spit our seeds over the porch railing and into the flower beds below. I was jealous of my sister, who had apparently inherited Grandma’s spitting abilities. Her seeds were flying through the air as mine flopped into my lap!

I don’t remember exactly what happened, but it was probably uncontrolled giggling that caused Jessica to breath in and swallow her watermelon seed. We were always told it was okay to eat the white seeds, but NEVER eat the black ones. She looked at us with panic in her eyes and I knew this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. “Don’t worry,” I said, “you haven’t ever eaten any dirt have you?” She looked even more worried and I went on, “and what about water? You don’t drink water, do you?” Grandma let it continue for a while and then she started to speak. I thought I was about to be scolded for lying to my sister and making her scared, but instead I heard, “That’s right, and don’t forget about the sun. If you drink water and get in the sun, that seed will just grow and grow in your belly.”

I couldn’t believe it! A grown up had gotten in on my fun! That was so awesome. I will never forget it. And neither will Jessica…Ha!!! :)

I don’t know what kinds of memories my kids will take with them as they get older, but I hope relaxing during the dogs days of summer, with a sticky piece of watermelon and Mom waiting to squirt them off with a hose, is one of them. I know it will be one of my favorites!