Peter the Giant Talking Pumpkin
Just after dark, on Halloween evening, Peter Pumpkin, a Giant Pumpkin, usually makes an appearance at our house. He is a Big Mac Pumpkin that comes to life on Halloween to talk to the neighborhood kids that stop by. Peter once told me he is the cousin of the famous “Great Pumpkin,” mentioned in the Peanuts Cartoon, Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Over the years, Peter has also learned Spanish and is sometimes bilingual. The pumpkin gained a bit of weight this year topping out at 160 lbs! Most years he is 100 to 140 lbs. Peter grows each year in San Diego County, outside of Escondido at an charming place called Bates Nut Farm. Getting him out of the field and home is usually the hard part. Thanks to the creativity of my parents and ingenuity of my father, Peter’s magic has astonished kids and adults alike, longer than I can remember. The pumpkin asks all sorts of questions and verbally interacts with the visitors to our home. It drives the grown ups crazy that they can’t figure out how we do it, especially since there is nothing around the pumpkin to really hide stuff. Hee, Hee, Hee!
Halloween has always had a big spot in my heart, and I think this pumpkin was the beginning of it. Below you can see a picture of me at 2 years old, posing in my bunny costume next to Peter in the early years.
My folks used to make a really big deal about Halloween back in the early 70s through the 80s with a haunted house, a candy monster, and Peter, who was the center piece of the celebrations. To give you an idea about how much this influenced my love of Halloween, my husband and I were married on Halloween 19 years ago today.
Before my husband and I bought Hanbury House in 1997, we had already been celebrating Halloween with lots of decorations, monsters, and themed parties. Once we moved here, we started carrying on the tradition of Peter Pumpkin (with major help from my father on the set up and technical portion.) We probably would not always go to all the trouble to bring Peter to life, if it was not for my father’s help.
This year, my 13 year old son took on a large part of the responsibility giving Peter a voice. Hopefully, one day, he will also carry on the tradition at his own house, too.
Note: I have the greatest dad in the world and he does so many special things like Peter the Pumpkin. Thanks Dad, I love you! Happy Halloween!
One thought on “Peter the Giant Talking Pumpkin”
Peter got fan mail this year! My husband was surprised and amused when he brought in the mail yesterday because mixed in with the bills were two homemade cards for Peter. They were from 5 year old twins that live in the neighborhood. Apparently they came by on Tuesday after school hoping to still see Peter here, and were disappointed to see he had already left for his winter home.
I usually keep it secret from almost everyone that his remains end up going in the compost pile over the winter. This was the first year my daughter was around to see Peter get chopped up, and I think it disturbed her. In past years, we have had tons and tons of pumpkin puree, but we are too busy this year to do it. However, the chickens and the dog did enjoy getting a small portion of pumpkin to snack on.