07/15/2026
Check out Georgie's latest adventure as he explores the best of Georgia—one stop at a time ⬇️
"Looking for the Watermelon Man"
Hello! This is your old pal Georgie, the Georgia Grown mascot. I travel all across this beautiful state of Georgia promoting our No. 1 industry: agriculture! Summer is finally here, and you may have noticed there are a lot more watermelons out there. Georgia is a major producer of watermelons, with Cordele famously known as the Watermelon Capital of the World.
A sight I still come across in my travels is that of folks selling watermelons from the back of a pickup truck – and personally, I think the more beat-up the truck looks, the better. That really comes from the classic, time-honored story of the “watermelon men.”
When I was growing up, it was just as common for us to buy a watermelon off the back of a pickup truck as it was to go to the grocery store. Sometimes, it was a totally last-minute thing. We would be planning a big backyard barbecue, and someone would say, “I’m heading out to get a watermelon!”
A man, usually accompanied by his son or a nephew, would arrive in town and pull over to park on the side of the road. Some would have a handwritten sign that simply read, “Watermelons for Sale,” but you really didn’t need a sign to understand exactly what was going on.
I went with my daddy sometimes to buy from the watermelon man. Daddy had a method for picking a good one. He would walk around the back of the truck and tap a melon just like a bongo drum. He wouldn’t like the sound, then he’d tap another, and another, until he heard a thud that finally pleased him. Daddy never really explained to me exactly how to tell a good melon from a bad one, except for saying, “You’ll just know it when you hear it.”
I recently read an article by Tyler Boudreaux on WCRW-FM’s website. She’s radio DJ from Los Angeles and fondly recalled visiting family in Chicago one summer where they eagerly anticipated the coming of the watermelon man. Tyler’s family summer memory turned her to Herbie Hancock’s 1973 recording of “Watermelon Man,” a classic jazz-funk groove that pays perfect homage to the man in the back of the pickup truck.
Winters are long and hard in Chicago, so they really take advantage of summer when it finally arrives and watermelon plays a big role. “It just kinda all goes together: barbecues, watermelon and family,” she said.
So, no matter where you get your watermelons, go grab one, have a slice or two, and enjoy the beautiful summertime.
