Long before they founded the Fair Bluff Watermelon Festival, two Columbus County farmers dreamed of growing 200-pound watermelons. A.J. Worley and Monroe Enzor Sr. were best friends before they rose to local fruit fame. As neighboring farmers who were both born in the 1920s, they often helped each other out. If Monroe was short on tobacco plants, A.J. would share; if A.J. needed sweet potato sprouts, he knew that he could walk across the street and grab some from Monroe’s beds. They’d drive into town — A.J. in his old Ford truck and Monroe in his Lincoln Town Car — to play cards at the local courthouse and brag about their watermelon patches.
“They would pull pranks on each other all the time and try to keep the other one in the dark on how big their watermelons were,” recalls Sawyer Enzor Strickland, Monroe’s great-grandson. The friends were known for their competitive streaks as much as their sizable harvests. Neither man ever wrote anything down about how they grew their watermelons. “They didn’t want their secrets getting out,” Sawyer says.
But word about two men growing 100-plus-pound watermelons in Fair Bluff had already gotten out, and soon, A.J. and Monroe noticed that some of their smaller watermelons were disappearing. To ward off thieves, Monroe would conceal his melons amid other plants, while A.J. tricked bandits by planting a type of watermelon that never ripens. “You could throw the [immature melons] out of the car at 60 miles per hour, and they wouldn’t bust; they’d bounce,” says Robert Worley, A.J.’s son.
A.J. and Monroe thought, If people want our watermelons, why don’t we share them and encourage others to join in on the friendly competition, too? That idea led to the start of the Fair Bluff Watermelon Growers Association. Beginning in the 1980s, the group encouraged locals to grow the largest melons they could. Crowds soon formed, and the competition became known as the Fair Bluff Watermelon Festival.
Although A.J. and Monroe are gone now, their names are still represented at the festival: Robert and Sawyer, also best friends, now co-chair the watermelon size and quality contests. At last year’s event, Robert trained his eyes on two old scales, formerly used by A.J. and Monroe, that were sitting on the festival stage, waiting to weigh watermelons the size of well-fed hogs. The melons were the best of last year’s harvest from Columbus, Bladen, Brunswick, Robeson, and three South Carolina counties. Robert watched as his son, Adam, and Sawyer hauled watermelons onto the stage for the weigh-in. Robert walked away with the highest honor: the largest watermelon ever seen at the festival.
“Grandpa A.J. would tell Dad that he didn’t think it was possible to grow a 200-pound watermelon here after trying for so long,” Adam says. “And then Dad finally did it.” The reward for Robert’s 224½ -pound miracle? Prize money and a coveted spot in the festival’s parade. And the only thing sweeter than A.J. and Monroe’s watermelons? Bragging rights.
Fair Bluff Watermelon Festival — July 27
Riverside Drive
Fair Bluff, NC 28439
fairbluffwatermelonfestival.org
More to Explore: Discover more July events across the state at ourstate.com/calendar.
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