When Haidar Shakir's electricity is cut off at his home in central Baghdad, where summer temperatures can hit 130 degrees, he runs around the corner for some cool relief in the form of watermelon . "The hot weather forces you to buy a watermelon every day," says Shakir, 40, while buying several watermelons for his family from a street vendor. In Iraq, watermelon is a symbol of summer. Roadside stands pop up all over Baghdad this time of year. "You will rarely find a dinner table that does not have watermelon," says Ammar Jassim, 23, a watermelon vendor.