I can't think of anything more summer for me than watermelons.

Buying those massive watermelons at the farmer's market, hauling them home. Of course, remembering the time one dropped on the driveway and went splat! They were heavy and my sister was still little then, but she wanted to carry in the watermelon. Luckily, we had bought 3 of them. I came from a family of 4 kids who all loved watermelon on a hot day.

All 4 of us could sit right on the front steps and have watermelon seed spitting contests. I never won. I think my brother and the other sister won the most often because they had longer tongues (and they were the most competitive).

We seldom ate the watermelon in the house, they were just too messy. All that juice running down your arms and face would drip on the floor too and leave it a sticky mess. No one wanted to be stuck inside the house cleaning up a floor with hot water on a hot summer day.

The Colours of Watermelon

I still love the colours of a watermelon, that shade of pink and darkish green are summer colours to me. Of course there are the shades of yellow, orange and red which we think of as the warm summer colours, but really... can you see the summer when you think only in shades of red? Nope. For me it's the watermelon and the colours of that fruit which give me the summer feeling.

Still like watermelon 40 years later

Here I am, long grown up, moved far and then farther from my old town and the house I grew up in. But each summer I always make a point of buying watermelon. Even if I have to sit on the front steps and eat it all myself. Often, I wait until someone is visiting. We still have to have the seed spitting contests after all. It's not about who wins as much as who ends up the messiest by the end of it all. I'm never the messiest and yet I still find sticky spots on my arms, clothes and other strange places hours later.

Did you know about watermelon cake?