Watermelon Man Brings Georgia To Whalley

Watch out, Stop & Shop: There’s a new watermelon man in town. 

And the summer-satiating, Georgia-originating seeded fruit he’s hawking out of a pickup truck on Whalley Avenue is reportedly the tastiest around.

That watermelon salesman is named George Gee.

A 58-year-old Newhallville native and current Raleigh, N.C. resident, Gee has been selling his mammoth green ovoid-shaped comestibles this summer out of the back of a GMC Sierra and attached U‑Haul trailer parked on the north side of Whalley Avenue just east of Winthrop.

This reporter first caught wind of Gee’s enterprise on Friday evening while taking the bus downtown. The bus driver abruptly pulled over at Winthrop, hopped out of the vehicle, and darted across multiple lanes of traffic towards the other side of Whalley. A few minutes later, she returned to the bus and, all smiles, apologized to the riders, saying she had just purchased a watermelon — which she’d be picking up later — from the guy with the best watermelon in New Haven.

Fast forward five days, this reporter found himself at a mayoral campaign press conference on Whalley on Wednesday afternoon. Lo and behold, the watermelon man was open for business, and eager customers kept stopping by, trading $15 apiece for the truck-hauled fruit.

“They the best. Everybody tell us to go and get it over here,” said Israel Torres, who had driven with his wife Kathy from their home in North Haven to pick up the fruit.

Kathy said they hadn’t tried Gee’s watermelons yet. But they’d heard enough rave reviews from friends to give it a shot.

How will they be eating it? ​“Chop it up. She do it in a salad. She got me on a diet,” Israel said with a smile.

“He wants to go on a watermelon diet,” replied Kathy.

Victoria Batts was similarly enthusiastic — and could speak from firsthand experience, having sampled quite a few of Gee’s watermelons already.

This is ​“the best place to get it from, the only person to get it from,” she said. ​“They’re all sweet. They’re all seeded. I don’t have to worry about where they’re coming from. They’re coming from down South,” and are the real deal.

While she is from New Haven, Batts said, ​“if I had to drive from out of town, this is where I’d go.” Stop & Shop’s watermelon pales in comparison, she said. Because these are ​“homegrown … nice and juicy,” come in red and yellow varieties, and are plenty seeded.

So. Who is this guy? And what’s the deal with his watermelons?

Gee said he started selling fruits and vegetables across New Haven way back in 1977, when he ​“used to work on the back of a truck” with a ​“Bishop Smith,” whom he described as a pioneer of such fruit-to-the-people work in the city. 

This latest watermelon-focused endeavor of his dates back to the Covid pandemic.

Gee said the fruit he sells on Whalley Avenue comes straight from Cordele, Georgia, the ​“watermelon capital of the world.”

He said he drives down to Cordele, loads up his truck and U‑Haul trailer with up to 450 watermelons at a time thanks to a ​“connection” he has down South, and then ferries them back up to New Haven, where he sells them for $15 to $20 each.

“They’re the best watermelons,” he said. ​“They’re seeded. They’re sweet. They’re big and juicy. You can’t get them nowhere else.” He said each fruit can weigh up to 40, 50, 60 pounds, and come in a number of different varieties: Crimson Sweet, Jubilee, Yellow, Orange Krush, Cracker Jack. 

His favorite kind of watermelon? ​“Charleston Gray. But they’re not ready yet.”

Gee said he has already driven down and back to Cordele six times since May filling up on watermelons to sell in his home city. ​“I just came [back] about an hour ago,” he said on Wednesday about his latest trip.

He said he’ll be selling watermelons on Whalley Avenue through Labor Day, and plans to drive back down to Georgia again and again so long as he keeps selling out of fruit up north. He stays with family and friends while in New Haven, and usually sleeps in his car while on the road during trips. ​“Once we finish,” he said, ​“we go back and get a load.”

How does he best like to eat watermelon? In a salad? As a juice? 

“Just by itself,” he said.

Is $15 a little steep for just one watermelon?

“All real watermelons start in Cordele, Georgia, at $13,” he said. And remember, these are ​“real watermelons. Not GMOs.”

What’s his favorite part of selling Georgia-grown watermelons on the streets of New Haven?

“Seeing people I haven’t seen in a long time,” he said. ​“Making them happy. Putting smiles on their faces.” And introducing them to ​“real watermelons.”