The Watermelon song

Lord Kadizzle searched long and hard for the lyrics to the watermelon song. It used to be a camp song we sang as kids. Kadizzle found two different sets of lyrics. The first is the one Kadizzle remembers.

You can talk about your apples
your peaches and your pears
Your simmons hangin' on that simmon tree
But bet your heart my honey
Of all the fruit that grows
That watermelon am the fruit for me

Oh! Hambone am good!
Chicken 'em sweet!
Possum meat am very very fine!
Yes Lord!
But give me, oh give me
I really wish you would
That watermelon hangin' on that vine

But when I went to futch it
Was on a rainy night
The moon it had not yet begun to shine
And oh that white man saw me
And he shot me through the fence
But I never left that melon on that vine

Now this would be a second version that must have been sung by Tennessee Earnie Ford

Back in West Virginia I used to sit upon the fence
A-wonderin’about the lack of people’s common sense

What I didn’t then keep concealed
Was one great big fat watermelon layin in the field

See that watermelon hangin’ on the vine
I wish that watermelon could be mine

The farmer must be careless
Without lack of sense
Or he wouldn’t have leave it hangin’
On the vine

Cornbread is sweet
Pork chops are good
Black eyed peas are mighty, mighty fine
But give me oh give me
I really wish you would
That watermelon hangin’ on the vine

Got a gal who loves me
She always treats me fine
She lets me hug and kiss her all the time
I wish that all her kisses
Could taste half as sweet
As that watermelon hangin’ on the vine

Oh kissin’ is sweet
Huggin is good
Cissie’s lips taste mighty, mighty, fine
But give me, oh give me
That watermelon hangin on the vine

Well I see that watermelon
So thick, so fat, so fine
What a shame to go leavin’ it behind

I know my baby’s waitn’
She won’t be waitin long
Now that I got that watermelon off the vine

Hambone is sweet um
Chicken is good
Blackeyed peas are mighty, mighty fine
But I ought to tell you
I really think I should
Eat a watermelon hangin’ on the vine.