by Christopher Hessman
Author's note: To get in the right, sultry mood for this article, go to any search engine to find Herbie Hancock's original recording (1962) of "Watermelon Man", with or without words.
Get and play the variation with music alone; then play the one with the lyrics. Then you're ready for the combined effect.
Let these melodic sounds and liquid words roll over you like the sweet watermelon juice itself, so sticky, so good, the very essence of summer.
First watermelon of the year.
Yesterday April 9 was the first day this year I saw watermelons in the Shaw's Market in Porter Square. I didn't hesitate for an instant, popping half a melon into my cart. It weighed 8.480 pounds and set me back (at 64 cents a pound) $5.43.
It wasn't enough either. Later in the day, I had to go back for more.
Eating watermelons is like that.
Cuidado!
The watermelons in the market at this time of year are neither local nor in season. They come from places far, far away; places you never heard of and will never visit. They are, let's be blunt, mere facsimiles of the watermelons you've enjoyed before and which will come again with the days of high summer. But, for now, they are all there is... and even a hint of their flavor... of the real thing is better than going without.
Red, red, luscious, all semblance of good manners gone.
Watermelons are always about the never-ending days of youth and summer; they are about shirts off, dig in, spit the seeds at your brother days. They are about adults snoozing in the shade and paper plates dripping juice while the flies and wasps circle round the richness and imbibe, becoming like the rest of us fat, drowsy, indulged, contented.
Thus, when I get home, I rip the bag to get the watermelon out and, knife in hand, rip out large red chunks. So anxious am I to have it that I forget my own admonition to the uninitiated: do not dig so deep that you get the white part next to the rind; that is never good. The more you are a connoisseur, the less you want knowledge of that.
All such folk wisdom flies in the presence of this first watermelon, eaten standing up in the kitchen, juice all over my face. I am 10 years old again... and no one here to say "Mind your manners," laughing, because they know just how you feel and that you cannot help yourself. Neither can they.
It seems when I think of watermelons, as I yearly do, they are never alone; watermelons are a family fruit. Easily available they are always as welcome as our dearest friends and relations and we are glad to share with them. No fruit is as American as watermelon; no images more quintessential and of the people. Watermelon memories stick to us just like the juice.
Stronghurst, Illinois.
My first memories of watermelon take place in Stronghurst, Illinois. It's a village in Henderson County. The population was 896 in the 2000 census. It was less fifty years ago when I as a boy used to visit. People there, it seems, knew of me before they ever saw me, for my family was related to or known by everyone. That's a feeling you never lose and are surprised others have never had. Stronghurst meant family, community, and knowing all your neighbors who knew everything about you, too.
Stronghurst is just a few miles from the grandest river on earth, the Mississippi. It is prime ground for growing watermelons, the rich earth composed of nutrients washed down river from the north, which would in due course and season be washed down river again on their journey to La Novelle Orleans where the good times roll. Henderson County knew nothing of those.... its good times were not of that raucous ilk.
The summer temperature in Stronghurst averages 83 degrees and can climb to an unbearable 113 degrees. On one such day when I was 10 or so, my father and I went in search of watermelons and found them ripe, ready and in abundance. Instead of going straight home, we sat (the memory is insistent) on a hill overlooking the great river and honored it with seeds spit out with laughter and "men's talk".
You should not lightly recall such experiences with him, an octogenarian now, for he is likely to mist and softly say, "I didn't think you remembered...", but I do, I do; such memories are sweet.
Herbie Hancock's memories.
Musician Herbie Hancock has his own version of such memories. He remembers the women of his community gathered on the back porch, the temperature oppressive. There they fanned, gossiped, complained of the heat, and whispered scandals and shared secrets.
In due course, the watermelon man appeared, his cargo rich, red, delicious. And the women would call to him... "Hey, watermelon man," each word a caress... and an invitation to dally. Sometimes he did...
Several different lyricists took Hancock's memories and turned them into jazz poetry, as sinuous as the music. Here are the lyrics used by the Dave Matthews band:
southern man better keep your head don't forget what your good lord said summer chains going to come at last now your crosses are burning fast southern man.
see that watermelon smiling through the fence i wish that watermelon it was mine sometimes i think that old folks ain't got a little sense when they leave that watermelon on the vine well apples are sweet and peaches are good rabbits so very very fine but give me oh give me oh how i wish you would some of that watermelon smiling on the vine.
The viagra-effect of watermelon.
Images of watermelon are rife with sensuality, eroticism. That is no accident. Scientists say watermelon has ingredients that deliver Viagra-like effects to the body's blood vessels and may even increase libido.
"The more we study watermelons, the more we realize just how amazing a fruit it is in providing natural enhancers to the human body," said Dr. Bhimu Patil, director of Texas A& M's Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center in College Station.
Beneficial ingredients in watermelon are known as phyto-nutrients, naturally occurring compounds that are bioactive, or able to react with the human body to trigger healthy reactions.
In watermelons, these include lycopene, beta carotene and the rising star among its phyto-nutrients -- citruline -- whose beneficial functions are now being unraveled. Among them is the ability to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does.
Ironically, citruline is found in higher concentrations in the rind of watermelons than the flesh. But the rind is not commonly eaten. That is why 2 of Dr. Patil's fellow scientists, drs. Steve King and Hae Jeen Bang, are working to breed new varieties with higher concentrations in the flesh.
To that I say, God speed, may it come soon.
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About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. He is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out Ultimate Cash Blueprint -> http://buy2412.ulticash.hop.clickbank.net
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