On August 12, 1995, while still a junior at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Jason Schayot reared back and spit a watermelon seed 75 feet 2 inches at the 81st De Leon Peach and Melon Festival beating the previous P&M Festival record of 49 feet 1/4 inch.

    It also eclipsed the previous world of 68 feet 9 1/8 inches set by Lee Wheelis at the Luling Watermelon Thump in 1989.

     The crowd lined the spit zone from Higginbothams (then Perrys) down toward Weavers.  The braver withstood the hot sun standing roughly in the middle of Texas Avenue while the smarter folks grabbed shade along the side walk. 

      Jason walked up, and let it fly.  The crowd on the east side began to shift backward as the seed flew to the north.  It landed about where the parking lane ends and the street begins but traveled past the end of the fire truck parked well down range. It was a typically hot and dry summer day with no wind to aid in the seed’s flight.  In fact there was not even a breeze. 

       Everyone immediately knew that Jason would win the competition and the celebrating began.  He was interviewed by a radio station broadcasting at the festival but no one realized that he had just set a world record.  It took nearly a year before the Guinness Book of World Records recognized his feat. 

       He appeared with De Leon’s Gary Chapman on Chapman’s CMT television show, but neither he nor Gary were able to get much distance on their seed spits that evening.  His Guinness certificate was displayed the following year at the festival.

      Jason is a descendent of two long time competing grocery families in De Leon, the Haffords (City Market) and the Holdridges.  He is the grandson of Deral Hafford and Delta Rea Holdridge Hafford.

      At last word, he was had become a band director first at Giddings.

    Jason celebrates as the measurement for his record spit is completed.  The photo is from the August 16, 1995 issue of De Leon’s Monitor.  The original photo and several others showing the celebration are in one of about eight boxes filled with hundreds of Monitor photos.  The actual photos will be placed here when found.  Smith’s store is in the background.

SEED SPITTING

Southwestern University, Guinness Book of World Records, Watermelon, Gary Chapman, Luling Watermelon Thump,

De Leon, Texas

Deleon, Texas

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