A fun time is just a seed spit away. Check out these

Watermelon
Heaven
A fun time is just a seed
spit away. Check out these
thumping-good festivals.
They reduce us to sticky, happy children when we wallow in slices with sweet juice
dribbling down our chins. Watermelons are great equalizers. Three great summer
festivals, one in June and two in August, celebrate all that is wonderful about this
iconic fruit, from the generations of local farmers to the beautiful pageant queens to
Few fruits embody the spirit of summer like the watermelon.
right: Weave through several watermelon stands
near downtown Luling, Texas.
26 S O U T H E R N L I V I N G
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FRANCIS-AINSWORTH HOUSE BED AND BREAKFAST, LULING, TEXAS
the slice-shaped jewelry that vendors sell.
©
b y TA N N E R C . L AT H A M / p h o t o g r a p h y M E G M C K I N N E Y / s t y l i n g R O S E N G U Y E N
JUNE 2006
27
above: Farmer Allen Watts’s 81-pound Black
Diamond, the record in Luling, sold for $8,200 at
the auction. left: Local farmers show off their
prizewinning watermelons during Luling’s
annual parade.
Thump to It: Luling, Texas
Despite the fact that the watermelon queen’s tiara
catches a pecan tree limb on Walnut Street, she
remains unfazed. Poise is crucial in her position.
Megan Cox stands atop a three-tiered float of
gold, pink, and green—colors of royalty here in
Luling. She anchors the parade as it snakes
through the neighborhoods.
Megan also handles the all-important task of
recording the weigh-in tallies of the massive Black
Diamonds. Area farmers roll them out of their
pickup beds and heave them on the scales. None
comes close, however, to the 81-pounder Allen
Watts cradles like a cannonball. The queen’s no
stranger to photo ops, but Allen outsmiles her
today. He breaks the Luling 80-pound record set
by his father in 1962. “We’ve all been trying to
beat it ever since,” he says. It goes for $8,200, the
most ever paid at the annual auction, a seriocomic bidding war between local businesses that benefits the farmer and a scholarship fund.
Meet You at The Spitway
“I started spitting watermelon seeds when I was
a kid,” says Lee Wheelis. “That was about the
only entertainment we had growing up in East
Texas.” Early training paid off when he sent one
68 feet and change, the Luling record that has
stood for 17 years. Supporting this philosophy,
the World Championship Seed Spitting Contest
begins with the 1- to 5-year-old grouping.
Each contestant takes his or her stance inside
The Spitway, a vacant
space between two
downtown buildings.
“I think everybody’s
technique is basically
the same,” Lee says.
“You just have to pick
the right seed, have the
right conditions, and
get a good roll. Lots of
luck is involved.” ©
Choosing the Best Melons
Guinness World Record holder Lloyd Bright specializes in growing the
biggies, but we asked him to give us mortals his secret to choosing
the best watermelons at the market.
Melons of a different color:
“I go with the coloration of the bottom of the watermelon. As
they ripen, that white area underneath will start to yellow and get
circular mildew spots on it.”
And if you must thump:
“If they are overripe, they sound hollow and have a dull sound.
When you thump or slap a ripe melon, you’ll still hear a ping.”
28 S O U T H E R N L I V I N G
Festival Info
• 53rd Annual
Luling Watermelon Thump:
June 22-25, downtown. For more
information call
(830) 875-3214,
ext. 2, or visit
www.watermelon
thump.com.
• 30th Annual
Hope Watermelon
Festival: August
10-13, Fair Park.
For more information call (870) 7773640, or visit
www.hopemelon
fest.com. For more
information on
Lloyd Bright’s
Guinness World
Record watermelon, visit www.
giantwater
melons.com.
• 62nd Annual
Rush Springs
Watermelon
Festival: August
12, Jeff Davis Park.
For more information call Les
Dawson at (580)
476-3255, or visit
http://home.flash.
net/~mvincent/
Festival.htm.
One of the most popular
treats at the Hope
Watermelon Festival is a
watermelon sherbet
served in a cone.
above: The large slices in Rush Springs, Oklahoma, are for sale until 4 p.m., after which they are free.
above, right: You’ll find mostly Jubilees and Royal Sweets at the Rush Springs festival.
Hoping for a World Record:
Hope, Arkansas
“How good are these seeds you’re selling?” asks
a gentleman who walks up. Lloyd Bright, his
tanned and cabled arms crossed, nods with a
modest grin at the table in the middle of his tent.
He’s carefully stacked several monster melons,
ranging from 110 to more than 200 pounds, up
there during the Hope Watermelon Festival.
He and his dad started growing large watermelons in 1973. By 1985, Lloyd and his son
pulled a 260-pound Carolina Cross from his
son’s patch, setting the Guinness World Record.
Lloyd sold the seeds from the champ to a friend
in Tennessee who, in turn, broke the record with
a 262-pounder a few years later. As thanks, the
friend gave Lloyd some seeds from one of the
new champ’s offspring. After such a dry summer last year, Lloyd regained his crown, hauling
one to the scales weighing 268 pounds. Good
30 S O U T H E R N L I V I N G
seeds run in the family, getting better with each
generation. Aah, genetics.
He admits that the big ones often get overripe after 150 pounds but adds, “They’re good
eating watermelons if we’re selling them. But if
someone in Texas is selling them, I’m not so
sure.” The grin reemerges, this time more teasing than modest.
Don’t Miss the Rush:
Rush Springs, Oklahoma
“You better get ready,” warns Phyllis Ray.
“Because at 4 p.m., it’ll be a watermelon freefor-all until we run out.” She’s cutting the
Jubilees and Royal Sweets into slices as big as
arms. Some people shuffling in line throughout
the day at the watermelon booth pinch a couple of quarters between thumb and forefinger
to pay for their slices. Most, however, hover
intentionally close waiting until 4 p.m., when
the remaining slices are given away for free.
“It gets crazy when the feed begins,” says
Phyllis. As the Rush Springs watermelon queen
of 1972, she’s seen more than a few of these mad
dashes. In total, she and other members of the
town’s Lions Club slice their way through almost
50,000 pounds of watermelons purchased from
local farmers. While a few parents gravitate to a
water spigot near the cutting tables, there are
still many purists—old and young—running
around. They sport big smiles, sticky hands, and
pink-tinged fingers. They’re not quite ready to
wash away watermelon bliss.
¢
Other
Watermelon
Festivals
This Month
• Chiefland
Watermelon
Festival: June 3,
Chiefland, Florida.
Call (352) 4931849, or visit
www.chiefland
chamber.com.
• Jefferson
County
Watermelon
Festival: June 1617, Monticello,
Florida. Call (850)
997-5552, or visit
www.monticello
jeffersonfl.com.
• Watermelon
Jubilee: June 1517, Stockdale,
Texas. Visit
www.stockdale
tx.org.
• Panhandle
Watermelon
Festival: June
23-24, Chipley,
Florida. Call
(850) 638-6180, or
visit www.the
wtdc.com.
F O R M O R E locate a regional farmers market:
southernliving.com/june2006
INFO