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July 1, 1999
Web posted at: 11:52 a.m. EDT (1552 GMT)

CORDELE, Georgia (AP) -- Roads leading to the "Watermelon Capital of the World" are littered with the carcasses of melons that didn't make it to market.

A few bounce out of farmers' overloaded trucks as they rush them to Cordele's State Farmers' Market, a major supplier of the fruit Americans devour at Fourth of July picnics.

Nobody objects to the vegetarian roadkill, which leaves piles of green rind and red flesh on the roadsides, because growing at the end of the melon vines is a crop worth about $27 million a year.

The watermelons that pass through the Cordele market, and those loaded directly into trucks in the field, create hundreds of seasonal jobs for the people who pick them, pack them and ship them.

"This is a cash crop that ... helps farmers get through the summer until the other crops come in," said Monica Simmons, president of the Cordele-Crisp Chamber of Commerce. "We have over 200 million pounds of melons go through our farmers' market each year, so it's very, very important to our economy."

Festival captures spirit of melon madness

About 150 miles south of Atlanta, this town of 20,000 people has proclaimed itself the Watermelon Capital of the World. Many travelers know Cordele as the town with the 110-foot Titan missile, a relic of the Cold War that has been parked beside Interstate 75 for more than 30 years.

Cordele commemorates its juicy fruit with an annual watermelon festival. This year the fest runs from June 19 to July 10 and features a seed-spitting contest, a street dance, a parade and fireworks.

Melons started rolling into the market on June 1. With July 4th fast approaching, the pace is frenzied as buyers try to fill holiday orders.

Eighteen-wheelers rumble in and out of the market, stopping at the gate to weigh in and out. Growers and their wives arrive in heavily loaded pickups, some pulling trailers containing mountains of melons.

Fruit is shipped across the country

Growers lounge in the shade of large sheds, waiting for buyers. The quality is good, despite a drought. But with watermelons selling for 6 to 7 cents per pound, growers are disappointed with prices.

Out on the hot asphalt parking lot, sweaty workers strip straw from hay bales to give watermelons a soft bed during the trip north. Others toss watermelons from farm trucks to semis that will haul them to East Coast cities.

Shirley Childs, smiling and joking with co-workers on a loading dock, has been working at the market for 25 years.

"I love this," she said while applying red stickers to seedless watermelons. "It's fun. You're out with nature, constantly busy, constantly doing something. There is never a dull moment."

At dawn, she goes into the watermelon fields to help with the harvest. Then she works on the dock until it's time to report for her full-time job, registering patients at a nearby hospital.

Childs' son, Jason, 23, also works at the market as a loader.

"It's a family affair," she said. "After all, we're the Watermelon Capital of the World."

Copyright 1999   The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.