A Fourth of July Tradition

Istiqlál (Independence), 11 Rahmat (Mercy), 165 BE – Friday, July 4, 2008 about 9:32 PM PDT

For my mother and I, watermelon is a Fourth of July tradition. This year I bought two individual watermelons. I cut the first one this morning and we ate it while watching T.V. I'll cut the other melon this afternoon or this evening. When we eat individual watermelons, we divide the melon between the two of us. That way there is none left to put in the fridge and forget about.

When I was a child, in Blackwell, Oklahoma, my grandfather grew his own watermelon. We ate huge watermelons all summer long. Now, however, I don't like having large watermelons in the fridge, because they take up too much room. The smaller individual watermelons are enough for Mom and me.

Another advantage is that I don't have to have the entire kitchen counter empty to cut them on. To cut an individual watermelon, I need only a small area and a sharp knife, nothing more. I cut the watermelon and put them on the plastic disposable plates. I remember, my grandparents always used paper plates for the watermelon when we had them outdoors. When grandpa cut a watermelon indoors, we used ordinary dinner plates to put them on.

The thing I find most interesting about family traditions is how they change, yet remain the same throughout the generations. Growing up we ate watermelon on the Fourth of July, no matter where we celebrated Independence Day, we ate watermelon. We sit off fireworks as well as grilled, but a cold watermelon on the Fourth was the common thread in all our family celebrations.

The grilling was never the same from year to year. Sometimes we grilled outside on a portable grill. Sometimes Grandma Newland would fix us a picnic basket to take with us and sometimes we cooked dinner on a stove in a mobile home (my grandparents had one at Lake Blackwell). However, we always ate an ice cold watermelon no matter how the Fourth of July dinner was prepared.