Watermelon (西瓜, 수박, スイカ)

Nothing to me marks the beginning and end of summer like the purchase of watermelons. Like the seasonal items at large department chains marking the beginning of certain seasons like Halloween, Thanksigiving, or Christmas, the way I know summer is on the way is when Costco puts out large crates of watermelons all stacked on top of each other in a prominent location and bargainhunters (pretty much everyone who shops at Costco) gather around and start tapping watermelons to try to pick the best one. I've never really understood the art of tapping and listening watermelons, I just see other people do it and I do it too to look like I'm discerning, when I'm pretty satisfied with any watermelon that I get, however it seems from a brief Internet search that a dull sound from a watermelon means that it's overripe, whereas a "deep sound" means it's ripe and ready to eat. What does a deep sound sound like versus a dull sound? Beats me. I once walked up to a watermelon crate while a couple had been evidently tapping watermelons for several minutes, whereas I walked up to the first one I saw, put it in my cart, and went on my merry way. I was proud of myself that day. 

Watermelons are the perfect summer fruit because well, they ripen during the summer and taste the best, but they also contain the most water, like 91% water, 6% sugars. A great summer cookout food, my parents insist on cutting watermelon to serve guests when any arrive (very few nowadays because of the pandemic but also just losing contact with friends, etc.). I always envisioned adulthood as one big party of inviting all the people I ever knew to gather around and be merry and reminisce on good times and play board games (nostalgia from my youth when my parents did actually go to a lot of parties hosted by their co-workers and graduate student friends) but as the years passed they started to get more isolated and less social, especially my dad, and now live an empty-nest life with kids out of the house and no grandkids yet. I am worried that my life is going that route as well, just being at home and no social life to speak of. No one told me as a kid that adult life is kind of like high school (high school never ends! - Bowling for Soup song) where the popular people always have people who want to hang out with them, but people like me easily lose friends because I'm always a backup plan, never the priority. This means no big parties, no catching up with friends you haven't seen in awhile, and importantly, no serving of watermelon. 

Not sure how it became a depressing post, but outside of watermelon's ties to social activities for me, it also marks the end of summer: yea right now mid-September would kind of do it. When the weather gets cold, I lose all motivation to eat watermelon, I don't get the same sensation getting it straight out of the watermelon and biting down and essentially getting hydrated if you're thirsty. I do lament one fact of watermelons, which is that cutting it into slices normally makes it so the first bite becomes the sweetest and best bite (due to that part being near the center of the watermelon), then gradually as you keep biting into it it gets less sweet, until you get to near the rind and it almost loses all sweetness. That's not a good lesson for life: one should try to do the hard work first, get it out of the way, then gradually build up and let it get easier and sweeter, delayed gratification and all of that. It's why I try to read books and deep learning early in the morning and leveling off in the afternoon to finally taking it easy and watching TV at night. Watermelons are like what society is today; everyone wants to frontload the good stuff like phones, entertainment, all the time, and then after that initial sugar rush life gets more bland as you keep living it and not as sweet anymore. Sad, kind of like the fact that summer if ending and fall is here now....and watermelons are going out of style. Goodbye, watermelon season.