Watermelon Festival

A woman called from Vero Beach.  An old friend of hers was being elevated to a judgeship.  They had grown up in Tallahassee, and she thought that a photograph of him as a baby with watermelons had appeared in the local newspaper in 1960 during a watermelon festival.  The newspaper offices had referred her to the library.  Could I look for it?  I found a couple of photographs of the Monticello Watermelon Festival in July of that year on microfilm, but not the one she wanted.

When I used to drive the library bookmobile to the village of Miccosukee, near the Jefferson County line, (of which Monticello is the county seat), I used to hear talk of how the watermelon crop was doing.  There were melon fields close by where I parked.

I have a bright memory of a summer day when I was five in Pinecastle, south of Orlando, swimming in a lake and eating watermelon with my friends.  Most people didn't have A/C, and a swim and crisp slices of watermelon gave us real relief from the heat.  The sweet, sticky juice ran down our faces, hands and tummies, and we rinsed ourselves in the lake.

In Florida, with its enormous coastline, seafood festivals vastly outnumber all other food festivals.  Yet, according to the National Watermelon Promotion Board, Florida has more watermelon festivals than any other state:  six!  Here are some photos from Florida Memory of the Monticello festival in days of yore, plus a few others.

 

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, Red Kerce

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory,  Karl E. Holland

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, Francoise King

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, Tallahassee Democrat

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, Tallahassee Democrat

 State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, Tallahassee Democrat

 State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, Francoise King

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, Tallahassee Democrat

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, Francoise King

Four ladies swimming and eating watermelon in the Suwannee River - Fanning Springs, Florida

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, Francis P. Johnson

Donald Fort loading Garrison watermelons - Oxford, Florida

 State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory

Watermelons being loaded by laborers for transportation - Tavares, Florida

 State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory

Unloading watermelons - Marianna, Florida

 State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory

Identity Crisis

I passed this ash urn entering the library by the Park Avenue steps this morning, and had to laugh.  I know it well, because it stands on the first floor landing in the smoking area, where I used to smoke.

There are two of them there, one on each side of the main stairway leading up from the street.  Two larger trash receptacles of a similar design stand on the second floor landing.  On the first floor landing, there is no place to throw trash, only these ash urns.

Being the smoking area, a lot of living goes on here, and living generates trash:  not only cigarette ash and butts, but food wrappers and drink containers.  You have to give people credit for trying to be tidy, but the poor ash urn is not up to the task.  It was not made to hold trash.

The cleaning crew has tried to make the best of the situation by putting in a bin liner.  The trays for these ash urns are rusted out, with great holes in their bottoms.  The urns have been there for twenty-three years, since the building opened in 1991, as have I.