A Bad Day To Be A Watermelon

By Editor | July 29, 2026 |

The countdown begins a few minutes before 1 p.m.

Family members check their phones while visitors gather around the table. Knives rest beside piles of locally grown watermelons packed in ice. When the phones read exactly 1 p.m., the first slice is served.

It wasn’t always that way.

One of the first years the Washington family sponsored the giveaway, visitors lined up before the advertised starting time. They began handing out watermelon early, and nearly every slice disappeared before 1 p.m.

“The people who came by schedule at one o’clock weren’t happy because all the watermelons had been given away,” Michelle Washington said.

The family has followed the clock ever since.

“Cayce is a people pleaser,” Michelle said. “He’s definitely not a schedule follower like I am. Mallory and I, if we’re supposed to start serving at one o’clock, we’re going to start serving at one o’clock.”

Now the tables can be ready, the watermelons cut and the slices waiting. But no one is served until the iPhones read exactly 1 p.m.

For the Washington family, it’s a tradition built over years of volunteering.

Cayce and Michelle Washington, owners of Valley Tool, have sponsored and organized the annual giveaway for more than a decade, but Cayce’s connection to the Watermelon Carnival goes back much farther.

As a former Water Valley Area Chamber of Commerce board member and president, Cayce helped organize vendors, worked the watermelon weigh-in and pitched in wherever help was needed.

“We love our community,” he explained. “The Watermelon Carnival brings people together from all facets of the community. It’s a great time for people to come together and enjoy what our community has to offer.”

That willingness to help has often put him behind some of the Carnival’s biggest moments.

When Water Valley hosted its Guinness World Records watermelon eating contest in 2019, Valley Tool became the preparation headquarters. Nearly 200 locally grown watermelons from Burney Farms were washed, sliced, cubed, weighed and bagged there by Washington, his employees and volunteers. More than 1,000 identical portions were prepared under USDA supervision before the record attempt.

Today, the giveaway has become a family affair. Daughters Mallory Mascolo and Carlye Carter help serve slices alongside their husbands, Blake Mascolo and Will Carter. Grandchildren Graham, Emma and Grae are growing up around the tradition, and work schedules and family vacations are often planned so everyone can be there.

“It’s become a big family event,” Michelle said. “The family enjoys it. They look forward to it.”

Mixed among the familiar red slices are bright orange ones that catch the eye of visitors who have never seen an orange-fleshed watermelon.

“I tell them, ‘It’s free. If you don’t like it, throw it away,’” Cayce said. “Then they try it and say, ‘Wow, it’s just as good as the red one.’”

The slices are generous by design.

“We got to where we didn’t want to give people just a little taste,” Cayce said. “We wanted them to have a good-sized slice.”

The family has also become known for its matching T-shirts that read, It’s a Bad Day to Be a Watermelon.

The tradition started when daughter Mallory found the design online several years ago. After the original shirts were no longer available, Chelsea Thweatt of Four Leaf Boutique in Water Valley recreated the design so the growing family could keep wearing them.

The shirts have become familiar enough that people recognize them away from the giveaway.

“We left there last year and went down to Larson’s to get some ice,” Michelle said. “People said, ‘Oh, you’re fixing to give away watermelons.’”

Before the afternoon is over, more than 100 locally grown watermelons will be gone, and the Washington family will have spent another Carnival Saturday doing what they’ve done for years — serving neighbors one slice at a time.

Posted in Top Stories