Table etiquette .............

[Bob Wright]

Was just reminded tonight that there are two things you can't eat neat: watermelon and BBQ ribs.

Many years ago, in the Good Ole Days, I attended a large Baptist Church here in Memphis. By large I mean 1200 or more in Sunday School on Sunday morning. During the summer on weekday evenings we often had a watermelon supper.

Folks would gather in the parking lot next to the main sanctuary and long wooden tables would be set up. The parking lot lights would be turned on and watermelons, held cold in wash tubs of ice, would be sliced and folks lined up and got their watermelon. And you could go back as often as you wanted to. Folks just visited, maybe there would be a singing for awhile, maybe a few announcements, prayer request for known sick or those who lost folks during the week. There'd be praying and singing and eating.

Finally the affair would break up, and men would hose down the tables now laden with seeds and watermelon juice. And folks had to wash off their sticky hands and bid each other good night. And a black man would come and collect up the rinds for his hogs.

Another time gone with the wind.

Bob Wright

 

[JPGLSG]

Bob you have been in the way-back machine for sure this evening...gone with the wind indeed. However we were fortunate enough to live in a life time like what you have mentioned. Gatherings today are much different....but maybe the same at heart.

 

[eveled]

Sounds like a good time.

I saw this thread expecting yet another "I was in a restaurant and somebody had a hat on" thread. Then I saw who posted it, figured it would be worth reading.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

I would like to add Corn-On-The-Cob and Mangos to the list of messy foods.
...and let's don't forget Crabs and Lobster. They don't give you a bib for nothing. :D

 

[coach]

Here near the Chesapeake we don't wear bibs to eat steamed crabs. That's reserved for those butter dipping lobster boilers. ;)
Granted there's no unmessy way to eat crabs and watermelon, a good pairing by the way. My father didn't like crabs so after he had his fill of the rest of the meal, he was the designated refiller of the ice tea or beer for everyone else. And a hose was usually involved with cleanup.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

I grew up in a small. rural Iowa town.

At some point in mid-summer, there was Watermelon Day in the town square. It was sponsored by one or more of the "fraternal groups". Held on a Saturday, as I recall, it involved a few galvanized stock tanks set up on the north, shady side of the square, filled with water, blocks of ice, and watermelons. Several tables were set up, covered with oilcloths, and used by the sponsoring guys as a watermelon-slicing venue. Several 55-gallon drums with the tops cut off were available to receive the gnawed rinds.

All free. We kids went nutz, of course, and there were the usual number of upset tummies among the inexperienced.

When all had eaten their fill, or they ran out of watermelons, cleanup was accomplished by the local volunteer fire department in about fifteen minutes. I don't really know what happened to all the rinds, but I do know that many of the town ladies claimed some to make watermelon-rind-pickles. (You younger guys ask your parents/grandparents)

This entire thing disappeared in the mid-1950s, and I'm not sure why. Liability problems, likely.