Watermelon Seeds

When I was a young boy growing up in rural West Tennessee in the 1950’s, I remember that one of our favorite summer pleasures was eating watermelons. My grandfather and many others grew their own watermelons; some young boys “borrowed” their melons from their neighbor’s patch; but my father had a grocery store so I got mine at the store.

I can remember many occasions on a hot summer night at church or family gatherings where many watermelons were enjoyed by all. I also can remember one other feature of those memorable summer gatherings–watermelon seed spitting contests.

Yes, as a ritual of a young boy in the 50’s, you had to be able to spit your watermelon seeds. There were contests for distance; accuracy–a tin can was often the target; and even sometimes we played war with watermelon seeds as our ammo. This was in an era before the dominance of TV or computers and before we all were too busy to enjoy life.

The seeds in our watermelons were always the same size and were most definitely were black. Those slippery little suckers were just the right size for our spitting contest and made a beautiful noise upon hitting the sides of those tin cans. It was a wonderful way to conclude a summer evening.

But what has happened?????? All the watermelon seeds that I see now are small white ones that are very very small. Someone will probably tell me that the watermelons are now hybrid varieties and they have been genetically altered so that the seeds are small. I protest!!!! How in the hell can you have a ole fashion watermelon seed spitting contest without the true seeds—those slippery black ones that I remember so well.