“It is chief of this world’s luxuries. . .. When one has tasted watermelon, he knows what the angels eat.”
— Mark Twain,Pudd’nhead Wilson
“We remember the fish we ate free in Egypt, and the vegetable melons, and the watermelons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlics. But now our appetite is starved; there is no food to be eaten at all, nothing but this manna!”
— Numbers 11:5 (Old Testament Israelites complaining to Moses about life in the desert of Sinai; Moffat translation with assistance from the Agricultural Research Organization of Israel)
“I carried a watermelon.”
— “Baby” in Dirty Dancing (classic OMG, I-can’t-believe-I said-that comment)
“Just thinking of a big slice of watermelon, so icy cold, drops bead[ed] up on the rind, is enough to bring tears of pure joy to a glass eye.”
— Jim Casada, author of Fishing for Chickens: A Smokies Food Memoir and other books
“When the moon has a green rim with red meat inside and black seeds on the red meat, then in the Rootabaga Country they call it a Watermelon Moon and look for anything to happen.”
— Carl Sandburg, Rootabaga Stories
“If you focus on only the seeds in a watermelon, you missed the sweetness of the meat.”
— Wally Amos, founder of Famous Amos chocolate-chip cookies
“Green Buddhas
— Charles Simic, “Watermelons”
On the fruit stand.
We eat the smile
And spit out the teeth.”
“It was not a Southern watermelon that Eve took: we know it because she repented.”
― Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson
If a Real Man doesn’t eat quiche, just what does his diet consist of?
— from Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche by Bruce Feirstein
Essentially, Real Men are meat and potatoes eaters.
Real Men eat beef.
They eat frozen peas.
And watermelon.
Plus French fries and apple pie. (Two important diet staples.)
Two watermelons cannot be held under one arm.
— Turkish Proverb
“Jesus! Oh I remember watermelon days!” And sped
— Hart Crane, “The Bridge”
High on a cloud of merriment recalled
“—And when my Aunt Sally Simpson smiled,” he drawled—
“It was almost Louisiana long ago.”
“There were happy days, with watermelon, and sad days of whiskey.”
— Lewis Nordan, author of Wolf Whistle and other books
“Ever had a drink of watermelon wine?” he asked
— Excerpts from Tom T. Hall, “Old Dogs, Children And Watermelon Wine”
He told me all about it, though I didn’t answer back
“Ain’t but three things in this work that’s worth a solitary dime,
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine.”
He said, “I tried it all when I was young and in my natural prime;
Now it’s old dogs and children and watermelon wine.”
“Old dogs care about you even when you make mistakes;
God bless little children while they’re still too young to hate.”
That night I dreamed in peaceful sleep of shady summertime
Of old dogs and children and watermelon wine.
“In watermelon sugar the deeds were done and done again as my life is done in watermelon sugar. I will tell you about it because I am here and you are distant.”
— Richard Brautigan, In Watermelon Sugar
“Fill up your stomach with a summer watermelon.”
— Popular saying in Ancient Egypt (appears in hieroglyphics and apparently means “don’t worry”)
“For it’s the sweetheart kissin’ season
— Except from Paul Francis Webster & Hoagy Carmichael, “Watermelon Weather”
And all the world’s in rhyme
When it’s watermelon sweet love tellin’ time”
“Marriage is a like buying melons, you need a little luck.”
— Spanish proverb
“When you eat a watermelon, now honey,
— Excerpt from Marcia Ball, “Watermelon Time”
You can’t have the blues,
You get yourself all sticky,
But you can’t be too picky,
Sweet as candy,
Sugar on the vine,
Fine and dandy now,
It’s watermelon time.”
“Watermelon — it’s a good fruit. You eat, you drink, you wash your face.”
— Enrico Caruso