History

The US City Where It's Sort Of Illegal To Eat Watermelon In Public Parks By Alba Caraceni Oct. 19, 2025 11:00 am EST

Watermelon may be the fruit we associate most with summer picnics in the park. The sweet and juicy red fruit is cool and refreshing on a hot day, cut into big slices and eagerly grasped with both hands as you bite in. But there's one small U.S. city where it's technically illegal to enjoy that rite of summer. Eating watermelon in a public park is against the law in Beech Grove, Indiana — although good luck trying to find anyone who's been nabbed for it.

The ban on watermelon in any of the city of 15,000 residents' four public parks was put in place because the discarded rinds were causing a sticky mess in park garbage receptacles by poking holes in the p

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