I’ve been looking for an excuse or way to wangle in this picture somewhere… but hey, it’s summer and what’s more summer than watermelons. Not sure if they load them up like this any longer and the Katy is long gone now, as are wooden cars.
Not only that but those watermelons are nearly extinct now! Those had seeds, lots of them, and half the joy of eating watermelons was spitting out the seeds. It was as Classic as this scene is. Also, don’t kid youself, they tasted way better than todays seedless varieties. They were sloppy and juicy and made a mess. Not today, you almost feel like you need a fork and knife and eat it like a steak, and no fun either.
Have not seen or tasted one of these original watermelons in years and years. Maybe in certain areas in the States you can still find them.
It is a certainty you wont find this scene however.
You know fellas there are 2 things I can eat endlessly … watermelon and peameal bacon. Stretch it from here to Jupiter and I’ll eat it. Has no end, no boundaries until I drop. Then I come back and do it some more.
John Tobias: a bit bittersweet in our context here…
During that summer
When unicorns were still possible;
When the purpose of knees
Was to be skinned;
When shiny horse chestnuts
(Hollowed out
Fitted with straws
Crammed with tobacco
Stolen from butts
In family ashtrays)
Were puffed in green lizard silence
While straddling thick branches
Far above and away
From the softening effects
Of civilization;
During that summer–
Which may never have been at all;
But which has become more real
Than the one that was–
Watermelons ruled.
Thick imperial slices
Melting frigidly on sun-parched tongues
Dribbling from chins;
Leaving the best part,
The black bullet seeds,
To be spit out in rapid fire
Against the wall
Against the wind
Against each other;
And when the ammunition was spent,
There was always another bite:
It was a summer of limitless bites,
Of hungers quickly felt
And quickly forgotten
With the next careless gorging.
The bites are fewer now.
Each one is savored lingeringly,
Swallowed reluctantly.
But in a jar put up by Felicity,
The summer which maybe never was
Has been captured and preserved.
And when we unscrew the lid
And slice off a piece
And let it linger on our tongue:
Unicorns become possible again.
It can’t be written today because there are no " bullet" seeds anymore.
Maybe down Memphis way you can still get the real deal.
13 days to Saskatoon from Florida back in the day. Figure another day and a half at least up to here. Watermelon in the dead of winter here at Robertsons trading will run you $32-$34 bucks. Everyone stares at the one whole watermelon brought in each week. Finally someone succumbs. Quietly and discreetly. The gals at checkout cheer and congratulate. Life on the shield.
Not so pricey now that’s it summer but going to run you at least 10 bucks, and of course no seeds.
Seeded watermelons are relatively easy to come by here – the best ones come up from the Mississippi Delta in old beat-up trucks to be sold by the side of the road.
We had this, or something very like it, in Stranger Things…
…hey look! It’s green…
And of course this thread wouldn’t be complete without
Not the exact thing that was pictured (the end of the E-956 ALFA-X that has the 22-meter nose*) but a direct ancestor: JR East E5
I think the nose on the other end of the E956 test train, a mere 16m, is similar to the E5’s with presumably some enhancement for the higher test speed range. It will be highly interesting to see what the comparative aerodynamic results at different angles, and (most significantly for them) in relatively tight tunnels, turn out to be.
Let’s avoid the whole subject of what might go faster than this with a watermelon.
*The question of capitalization comes up. The ‘ALFA’ is an acronym (of the tormented-language-to-fit variety) that stands for ‘Advanced Labs [sic., not ‘Laboratories’] for Frontline Activity’ (the X is for eXperimentation) but the JR East page calls it ‘Alfa-X’, and I have no Web site for any ‘labs’ so-called. Make of this what you can.
I believe those ‘nose treatments’ are designed to minimize the ‘piston effect’ when the trains enter tunnels - Japan has many tunnels on their high speed routes.
