Dixon Melon harvest ready
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DIXON – Twenty years ago, Daryl Taylor approached the Hettick family about using their melon crops as the focus of a community celebration.
“Daryl and Fritz Wipplinger worked very hard to get it all together,” Joey Hettick said of the two Dixon residents, who have since passed. “And the community just took it from there.”
This weekend Dixon will celebrate the 20th Annual Dixon “Melon Days” Festival with the focus of the celebration still on melons. In addition to the crop, the celebration also includes a one-, two- and three-mile run and walk with registration from 7:30 to 8:15 a.m. and the starting at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. The Cribbage Tournament is from 7 to 10 p.m. on Friday. There is also a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, a horseshoe tournament and a silent auction taking place on Saturday. The parade will start at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday and this year’s grand marshal is Margaret King. A melon-eating contest will be held at 2:30 p.m.
According to organizer Breezy Coston, there will also be a dance that coincides with the Dixon all-school reunion. Dixon no longer has a high school and the last graduating class was in 1977. Each year former students meet up and last year they took a tour of the old school. This year the “Little Big Band” will provide music for the reunion.
“Come out and support the community,” Coston said of all the “Melon Days” activities. “It is really fun.”
According to Hettick, this year’s crop of melons was set back a bit by the cold and rainy month of June. She expects the crop to ripen and be ready to harvest next week. Despite a cold June, Hettick said they expect a lot of melons at the celebration, but it has taken work to get there. They have had to put tents on the melons to create a greenhouse effect to speed up ripening.
This year’s harvest has been especially hard with Joey’s husband Harley Hettick recovering from health problems.
“We really appreciate the Dixon community’s support,” Hettick said.
