Decatur Cantaloupe Fest Turns Sour
Decatur Metro | June 24, 2009From the Decatur Metro Fictional Desk…
With the rising sun at her back, Decatur’s special events coordinator Cheryl Burnette stood at the top of Ponce de Leon Avenue on Monday morning with a broad smile on her face as a dump truck filled with fresh cantaloupes emptied them onto the closed street.
As Burnette had explained to the hoard of reporters earlier in the morning, “With all the positive resident response we’ve received to dumping sand on the street for the Beach Party, we all agreed that cantaloupes were the next logical step. We have all sorts of great cantaloupe events planned for the festival tonight: bowling, ring toss, eating contests, you name it!”
But unlike sand, which tends to stay put, these cantaloupes had more mobile plans. As soon as they were released onto the pavement, the fruits immediately began their descent with around 200 heading north down Clairemont Road, while hundreds of others took an east or west route down Ponce de Leon.
Having expected this reaction from the feisty fruits, the city had preemptively set up a series of wooden barriers on each street to prevent escape. However it seems that no one truly understood the sheer power of a cantaloupe (or 100) on a steep downward descent.