Baby melons

The Greenmarket is one of the places that makes me love New York, but I also love hearing about the dark side of the market. You can read about some of the controversies on Nina Planck's website . She used to be the director of the Greenmarket, but got fired. Some of her ideas are that smaller farmers should be able to sell at the Greenmarket and that everything should be local, including the butter that goes into the baked good, for example. She a purist and an idealist. As a result, she has started up her own farmers markets called the Real Food Markets. I went to the one on Lafayette at Petrosino Square, but it was rainy and the second week that it was open, so it was basically 3 vendors and a bit pricey. I'm on her email list though and every week it sounds like it's getting bigger. Personally, I just want stuff to taste good and wish it was cheaper, but I appreciate the Nina Planck's of the world.
This morning I went to the Greenmarket at Tomkins Square Park and bought the usual summer staples: corn, lettuce, tomatoes, peaches... Then I saw the watermelon and knew I had to have one. I was going to get a yellow on the inside, stripey on the outside melon, but this group of 3 Chinese men were thumping all of those melons and I didn't feel like butting in. So I went with the red "sweet baby". I did some thumping and I know it's supposed to sound hollow, but they all sounded the same to me. Is the thump supposed to be in the key of C? B minor?
So I asked the Chinese guy next to me. His response to my thump was Maybe. So I called my mom and she wasn't home. My dad was like, huh? what? Mommy will be home in an hour. We talked about about when mom was sick and dad bought a watermelon to cheer us up. He cut into it and out poured red liquid because it was rotten inside. That sucked as well as symbolized everything that was going wrong at the time.
I just cut into my little melon and while the disappointment wasn't as profound as when Dad cut that rotten one, it sorta sucked because the flesh isn't sweet on this baby. The taste is well, watered down, and it doesn't have that distinctive sugary taste. It's okay, I'll make watermelonade with my lemon of a watermelon, but it's not good enough for my watermelon, cilantro, feta salad.
I just spoke to my mom and she said that the thump should sound like a "pung!" I have no idea what she's talking about, but she also said that the vine should have fallen off cleanly. My vine was still attached. I picked a melon before it was ready.
Dammit!