PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Look carefully at the intersection of 84th Street and Lindbergh Boulevard or you’ll miss the mountains of melons.
“We just don’t sell melons,” Joshua Carter said. “We specialize in it.”
There’s no parking lot or high-tech at this roadside operation — and there doesn’t need to be. The Carters are the experts, and they’ve got watermelons for every day — ripe for eating today, tomorrow, or your weekend.
Carter Melons is now a fourth-generation family business, and loyal customers rave about the Carters’ status as a household name in Southwest Philadelphia.
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“Everyone knows this melon,” said a man who stopped on the side of the road to buy one.
Carter Melons has been around for over 70 years and is based in Philly. The brand is known for its quality and consistency.
“My father had the philosophy, like Dr. King, that if you want to be a street sweeper, you have to sweep the street so well that there is a path to your front door,” Carter said.
His father, Dov Carter, founded an NAACP chapter in central Georgia. In 1948, he moved his family to Philadelphia after nearly being beaten to death for helping black people register to vote.
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Once we moved to Philly, “my dad got truckloads of watermelons,” Joshua Carter said.
It was a way to earn some extra money for the family of 12. Plus, the community in this part of town couldn’t find such fresh fruit anywhere else.
“You don’t find them in the supermarket,” he added. “We have yellow flesh, red flesh, orange flesh,” he said of the watermelon varieties they sell.
He walked over to a pile that lay neatly along the side of the road.
“They call them sugar babies. And they live up to their name,” Mr. Carter said, showing off the sweet red melons he sells.
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He uses a unique approach to determine exactly when a melon is ready to eat: he taps it with his fingers and palm and then listens.
“That flat sound,” Carter explained, “is an indication that the watermelon is ripe.”
“Just like when you meet someone and you feel their spirit, with the melon you go with the vibrations, and those determine the lifespan of the melon.”
It is that knowledge that attracts returning customers from all over the region and even tourists.
“I’m on my way to pick up my daughter, and then we’re going to Wildwood from there,” said Nadine Harvey, who stopped by the stand to buy a few. “And that’s all they’re talking about, these yellow watermelons. That’s what they want.”
The location is just minutes from Philadelphia International Airport.
“I’m not bragging, but they say, ‘You’re the watermelon king,'” Carter said. “Just like you come to Philly and you want a cheesesteak, you want a Philly pretzel — we want it to be like when you come to Philly, you want a Carter melon.”
With the next generation of Carter men behind the fruit stand, Carter Melons recently opened a second location at 52nd and Pine Street in West Philadelphia.
“To honor my dad, to honor our grandfather. Every day that we spend here together, these are memories that we create,” said Joshua’s nephew, Corey Carter.
