The Pumpkin Contest

Out in the backyard, I saw a pumpkin plant growing next to the fence. It must have sprouted up from one of last year's pumpkins. The wind must have picked up the seeds and taken them to the fence. There they grew.

I knew this plant was a pumpkin plant. It was just like the plants my grand dad grew a long time ago. It had very big leaves and thick stems. I would know that plant anywhere. The plant always made me think of Jack and the Beanstalk.

I saw the pumpkin plant and I thought about him. We called him Pip. We had such fun with Pip in the fall each year. There was my brother, David, and I and our four cousins. We were all about the same age and we spent a lot of time at Pip's house.

In October each year, Pip sent us out into his garden to find the largest pumpkin. Then we had to guess the weight of the pumpkin. We tried to see who could make the best guess. The kid who made the closest guess was the winner. One of my cousins would win. Sometimes David won. Most years, I stood back and watched someone else win.

"William, you are the winner," said Pip one year. Pip smiled and took the pumpkin off the scale. My prize was a silver dollar. I was very proud. We would then carve our pumpkins. We made the kinds of pumpkin faces Pip liked to see. Pip was right there with us. He wanted to be sure we used the tools the right way. He taught us that every year.

"That one needs some expression!" Pip would say. It was up to us to find a way to make getting better every year. We made all kinds of eyes, noses, mouths, and ears. No two pumpkins were the same.

My brother, David, always chose a tall pumpkin. He wanted his pumpkin to have a long, scary face. I would rather have the round pumpkins because they were better for making happy looking pumpkins. I didn't like the scary ones. I thought pumpkins should make people smile. This was just one of the ways my brother and I were different.

For Pip, the real fun each year was to set the pumpkins on the front porch railing. All his friends could see them when they took their morning walks. Pip loved that!
"Can we put the pumpkins on the back porch this year?" I asked Pip. "We can look at them when we sit out there in the evening, We can put little candles in them. The light will shine through the parts we cut out. That would be so cool!"

Pip thought about it.
"Well, William, that's one way to do it."
Pip never said we had a bad idea. He would think about it for a short time. Then, he would say, "That's one way to look at it."

"The people in this town like to walk by our house this time of year. They wait for the day we set the pumpkins out. They want to see this year's work," Pip said.

This was all fine with us except for one thing. Pip always wanted us to name our pumpkins. Every year, David would call his pumpkin Wilber, Willy, Wally, Willis or a name like that. He did it to make fun of my name.

David liked to see me get mad. I could never come up with any names that were like his name. I could not get back at him. I had to get through it.

Pip's friends would see a pumpkin they liked. They would call out, "What is this one's name?" David would call out, "His name is Willie!"

Every time I heard someone say something about "That Willie pumpkin" or "This Wilber fellow," I would want to hide. My face would turn very red very quickly. That was how mad I got every time. I knew that my brother was nearby, laughing his head off. Pip did not seem to see this going on.

David had fun seeing me get so mad. I knew that if I did not get mad, it would not be fun for him any more. Maybe he would stop. When I got mad, I gave him just what he wanted. I hated that.

Every year it got worse and worse. Soon, it go to where I did not like the pumpkin season any more.

Then, I had an idea. I saw what Pip liked best about the contest. It was not the pumpkin carving itself. He liked having his friends stop by to visit. That was the best part for Pip.

They would "ooh" and "ahh" and Pip liked that. The better the pumpkins were, the longer his friends stayed. Pip and his friends had a lot of things to talk about. They could talk about the good old days. The pumpkins just gave them a good reason to stop at our porch. They could then visit for as long as they wanted.

"Pip, maybe this year, your friends can name the pumpkins. They can look them all over, as they always do. They can name each pumpkin. It would be a lot of fun for them. What do you think?"

"William, that is a fine idea. I can just see them all now. They will talk about whether a pumpkin is a Jasper, a Dexter, or a Max." Pip said.

"Or a Bob," I laughed. "I'll bet they will be here all morning!"

"Now, that's a good bet!" Pip said. He had a big smile on his face. I could tell he could not wait until our next pumpkin contest.