"The Watermelon Gang" by David Rutter

Sue's Diner is delayed for one day because Rebekah isn't happy with the watermelon recipe she invented yesterday.

Another "watermelon" themed project that Rebekah helped bring to life is the biography, "The Watermelon Gang" by David Rutter.

Synopsis: Fred Arthur Rutter was a bright Army kid when he reached China in 1945. The ancient land changed him, as he changed it. All he needed was brains and watermelons.

Rutter was the interim editor at the The Herald-News for a few months last year. He shared his dream of publishing this book. 

So when Rutter's interim editor duties were finished, I connected him with Rebekah helped make the dream a reality.

Rutter graciously answered five questions about his book. And we hope to have a much better watermelon recipe to share tomorrow.

1. What inspired the title?

David Rutter: I realized after being around him as a son and coworker for most of my life that he was one of those people who gathered loyal teammates to his side, simply by his style and unannounced charisma. It had gone all the way back to his childhood when he was the leader of a disorganized kid gang, that I named the Watermelon Gang....When he told me about his life in China, it became clear to me that this style marked his entire life

2. Why did you write it?

David Rutter: It was too good of a yarn to ignore and, besides, I think I owed an explanation to the world about how remarkable a person he was.

3. Why should people read it?

David Rutter: I often tell curious customers that they will learn 100 things about America's War in China that they never knew. What Old China was like before Communist rule. This quest to know the history that has escaped history books is deeply attractive to me. In my case, my many conversations with the Father at the twilight of his life let me into a world I had never known either. I did not even know he'd won the Bronze Star until he was 80 or that he'd walked away from the Army without it in 1946.

4. What do you want readers to take away from the experience?

David Rutter: Learning? Almost all of the book made me open myself to an ancient culture that is barely understood in the West. I realized while I was compiling the idea for the book that my Father had been a child when he entered the Army in 1938 but exited the war as a full formed adult. His best Chinese friend had introduced him to Zen without even telling him what he was learning. I came to see how and why my father was patient and tolerant when no one else seemed to be. He became that man in China. It was an awakening of my appreciation for him.

5. What did you learn from the process of writing this book?

David Rutter: I have found that caring about a topic makes writing more challenging but also more meaningful. If it were easy, anyone could write a compelling book. I cared about this book likely more than anything else I've written. It was not so much a literary exercise as it was a testament to Father's humanness and humanity.  I think I owed my Father at least that much care for his life.

Plus-----I hope readers will see this is less a "war book" than it is a profile that coincidentally occurs inside a war. After all, "Catch 22' and "Slaughterhouse 5" are superficially war books, but far more at their heart.

Buy "The Watermelon Gang" on Amazon.