JJ: Do you know about the watermelon thing?
AA: What watermelon thing?
JJ: So, this is something I think is passed down from generation to generation
AA: Oh, really?
JJ: Oh, yes! So basically, it goes that if you eat a watermelon, or like, eat something with seeds
in it, that the seeds will sprout in your stomach, and you’ll grow a watermelon inside you
AA: Like a whole watermelon? If you swallow the seeds?
JJ: Yep, a whole watermelon
Why do they know or like this piece? where/who did they learn it from? What does it mean to
them?
AA: When was the first time you heard this?
JJ: Uh, from my brother and his friends.
AA: And where are you from?
JJ: Newburyport, Massachusetts.
AA: What did you think of it? How did it affect or play out in your life?
JJ: It scared me. I still to this day don’t eat watermelon.
AA: What?
JJ: Well, partly because I don’t like the taste, but also I don’t know, maybe I was affected
psychologically.

Context of the performance- where do you perform it? History?
Jonathan recalls this being performed in elementary school, specifically with older kids telling
this to younger kids to scare them. He doesn’t remember it being carried on into middle school
but it being very believable in elementary school.

Reflection
I have definitely heard this before but I think it’s weird more than it is anything else. I’m pretty
sure I heard it in elementary school and I remember being afraid to swallow seeds but I never
feared eating fruit in general. I see how this can spook children though.