I’ve never seen the Great Pumpkin (click here) myself. You know – that mystical figure that Charles M. Schultz created to get the kids all excited about Halloween. But Linus believes that if you are sincere, then the Great Pumpkin will rise out of your pumpkin patch on Halloween night and fly thought the air, bringing toys to all the children in the world! So I decided to begin a sincere search this year for the Great Pumpkin. My first stop was at a very old Naples Cemetery, the site of the first church in the area and the burial place for many of the first citizens who settled in that valley. Perhaps the Great Pumpkin lives here on days other than Halloween? In any event, someone forgot to shut the gate and I can’t tell if that person was coming or going!
Trying to find a pumpkin patch is difficult these days as most farmers who raise pumpkins hide their patches from the eyes of those who might pass by the patch. Why is that? Because some Halloween prankster might steal the farmer’s prize pumpkins! Imagined, working all summer to grow a beautiful big pumpkin and then right when you are going to pick that pumpkin, it’s gone! This just makes my search more difficult.
Next I headed to Joseph’s Wayside Market in Naples, NY in search of the Great Pumpkin. There’s got to be enough pumpkins grown around Naples for Joseph’s Wayside Market in Naples to satisfy all of the children in Naples as well as those children in the surrounding area. I didn’t see the Great Pumpkin as he only rises out of the most sincere pumpkin patches on Halloween night. For a while I forgot about all about the Great Pumpkin and just enjoyed the sight of the pumpkins, squash, gourds, grapes, apples and Indian corn that come from the fall harvest around the Finger Lakes region. Maybe as Patty said to Linus, “You’re wasting your time, the Great Pumpkin is a fake’’! I have a lot of patience and with the half dozen freshly fried donuts and a glass of cider that I bought at Joseph’s Wayside Market, I am going to spend the rest of the day searching.
I came upon a pumpkin pyramid in the little village of Phelps, NY. Maybe Linus had it all wrong and the Great Pumpkin doesn’t rise up out of the pumpkin patch on Halloween after all, but comes out of the Great Pumpkin Pyramid? Now that’s a unique thought. Pyramids do have special unique spiritual and physical powers which are not understood by today’s scholars.
That’s it! The Great Pumpkin is a spirit! I know that he will come on Halloween to all those who believe. Have a Happy Halloween!
