Where Watermelon Rules

Summer is nigh, a time when watermelons ripen for picking in the fields of Luling, Texas, which claims the title, "Watermelon Capital of the World."

To give thanks to these very large vegetables and their growers, the town holds an annual watermelon festival called the "Watermelon Thump" -- thump, of course, being what you do to a melon to tell if it's ripe.CBS News Sunday Morning Correspondent Bill Geist reports.

As one girl explains: "You hit it real hard, and if it's hollow, then the more hollow, the better. The more ripe."

The Watermelon Thump (the festival) started back in 1954 as a small local event. Now, it draws some 40,000 visitors to Luling, a southeast Texas town of just 5,000 residents

Before the last Thump, Bubba Damon scoured his watermelon patch, hoping to pick a winner for the festival's Biggest Watermelon Contest. When he found a contender, he put it in a cage, "to keep the rabbits away and the deer and the coyotes."

Meanwhile, 21-year-old Christi Rheinboldt, 12-time Luling watermelon speed-eating champion, was tuning up at home with her mother.

Reports Rheinboldt, "The slowest time was 40 seconds. The fastest was 24 seconds… I don't play around."

Chimes in her mother, "I'm very proud of her."

And what parent wouldn't be proud? Geist himself stepped up to the plate, explaining, "The champ takes on all comers."

He only got laughed at by Rheinboldt.

Lee Wheelis was practicing in his backyard for the watermelon seed-spitting contest. He's a spitting legend, having set the all-time Luling record: 68 feet, 9 1/8th inches.

"People started calling me on the phone, wanting radio interviews," says Wheelis. "Kids at church came up and asked me for my autograph… And it was all kind of overwhelming."Jamie Nichols, Luling's commissioner of spitting, was making sure the spitting arena was ready, explaining, "This is our World Championship Spitway."

Spitway?

"Spitway," Nichols affirmed.

Like the Indianapolis Speedway.

"So you can see," Nichols said, "we take this very seriously. We think that we have a world championship-caliber venue."

His son, Aaron, the reigning champion going into the competition, and his brother, Walter, a former champ, offered a novice a few tips.

Advised Walter, "Once you get the seed on your tongue, most people, and I do, curl your tongue, so you want to hold it in a curled tongue."

Like a cannon?

"Absolutely," said Walter.

Geist managed 19 feet.

But the exciting kickoff to the Luling Watermelon Thump is always the anxiously awaited coronation of the Thump Queen.

Says former queen Catherine Johnson, "Well, you always knew when you were a little girl, you were either gonna run for Watermelon Thump queen or you were gonna be the Watermelon Thump queen. You campaign just like you would for a political office, really and truly. More people show up to vote for Thump Queen than they do for city elections."

In the Luling parade of watermelons, the Thump Queen is fairest of them all. Her first official duty is recording the weights of big watermelons brought in by Bubba Damon and the other growers, who put them on display for townsfolk to admire, then put them on a scale to see who has the biggest melon in town.

Bubba's melon (61 pounds, 5 ounces) places second and draws big bucks ($4,300) at auction. Owning a big watermelon seems to be a prestige symbol in Luling.

Over at the pavilion, Rheinboldt arrives for the big speed-eating contest as the juniors competition is concluding. She is an intimidating presence.

Rheinboldt obliterates the red flesh, but stops momentarily, mistakenly thinking she's been declared the winner, and a man from out of town wins. Christie takes it hard, saying, "I won and then they told me I didn't win."

At the Spitway, the little spitters, the future of spitting, go first. Then the standing-room-only crowd gathers for the world championship. Spitters have come from throughout Texas, the nation and the world.

But on this day, none, not even Lee Wheelis, could match Richard Robbins from right there in Luling, who unleashed a great expectoration: 52 feet, 7 1/2 inches.

Said Robbins, "It means a lot to me. I've done it for, since I was probably 6 years old… The only way I'll ever miss a Watermelon Thump is if I'm in a pine box."

And this native son makes all who live in Luling, the Watermelon Capital of the World, proud.