Summer Delight...

I'm disgusted! Totally. First it was the fact that I can't find peaches with any juice in them any more, and now it's the watermelons.

I bought a watermelon at Price Chopper last weekend. It looked good. It had that hollow sound when I thumped it. But when I cut it open, it was not the deep red it should have been, and it didn't have a sweet flavor like it should have. I stuffed it back into the plastic bag and returned to the store to exchange it for another one.

When I returned home with that one, with high hopes and anticipation of savoring that sweet summer flavor, I was again disappointed. This one must have been the other's sibling because they looked the same and tasted identical.

So I gave up on Price Chopper and, instead, the following day, decided to give HyVee an opportunity. Fortunately, they were the same price. Unfortunately, they were the same product. The final victim was even lighter pink inside than its two predecessors. I returned that one as well and decided to hold off for a few day and give them some additional ripening time at the store.

When I was a kid, I remember the watermelons we used to get were not long and striped. They were round and a solid, deep, dark green on the outside. I think my dad called them Black Diamonds. I don't see that variety very often these days. There was nothing better than a warm summer evening when my dad took that melon out of the fridge and sliced it open to reveal that dark red center. Of course it had seeds, all melons did in those day. But it was ripe and it was sweet and juicy.

I'm going to have to try to find me one of those very soon.