Some things are funny, and some
things aren't. This is a story of something you might think to be funny, but
really is not funny at all. It all started on a foggy fall morning in Orville.
The hamsters in Kevin's room had already shredded their days' worth of toilet
paper and were working on their breakfast of multicolored nuggets. Orville is
not a big town, but it has its share of big events that the town's people look
forward to every year. One of these events is the annual Pumpkin Festival. For
whatever reason, this morning the pumpkin shaped alarm clock next to Kevin's
bed not only didn't ring for the daily morning wake up time; it apparently had
made its last tick at around 11:46 pm. Not a good time for this timepiece to
bite the dust. Kevin needed that early morning start on his entry for the
pumpkin pie contest. His pie had to be perfect, it had to be fresh, and it had
to be on the judges table by 11:30 am. If it wasn't for Lulu and Ollie getting
into a throw down scrapping fight over who knows what, Kevin wouldn't have
woken up at all. "Ah, no!" Kevin screamed as his eyes focused in on
the dead clock. All he could do was throw on his clothes from the day before
and rush downstairs to get the oven heating up for pie time. There was no time for a shower or even to
brush his teeth. Just so as not to ruin his chances of offending the judges
with morning breath, he grabbed the
bag of peppermints from his mother's secret stash behind the sewing machine and
stuffed them into his pocket. "Of all days for her to leave so early,"
Kevin thought to himself. But Mrs. Agnew
came down with a gall bladder attack the night before and someone had to teach
the Momma's Little Mermaids swim class down at the community center.
You might think that entering a
pumpkin pie contest is a bit odd for a thirteen year old boy. But Kevin is not
your ordinary boy. He knew what he
wanted in life, and football or brutal video games did not make his list of
what he considered fun. His infatuation for anything pumpkin seemed to have started
one Halloween when he was just four years old. The streets were full of kids in
costume filling their pillow cases or plastic pumpkins with candy. But when
Kevin came home, he dumped out all of his candy into the bathroom sink and
slept with his empty plastic pumpkin positioned on a pillow at the foot of his
bed. Up until that day anything pumpkin that was to have crossed his lips,
would have been immediately spewed out with a spit and a grunt. So when Kevin came down the next morning and
announced that he wanted pumpkin pie for dessert that night; jaws dropped and
the room went silent. "Okay, I'll make one today" said Kevin's mom as
she watched her son react in delight with a grin from ear to ear.
Over the years Kevin took an
interest in everything pumpkin and excelled in his projects from growing the
largest one to perfecting a pumpkin pie recipe that was the envy of the town's
reigning pie queen Ms. Metzgar. To this day his love for anything pumpkin is a
mystery, but for some reason that hard orange vegetable brings joy to that
young man, and because some think it's funny, it has also brought a thick skin
to that same boy because he refuses to let others rob him of his passion.
If you're wondering what happened
with the pie contest; that morning Kevin managed to whip together the world's
best ever pumpkin pie and won by a landslide of accolades. The news of his
winning pie spread across the land from one blog to another and finally reached
the attention of the Libby's canned pumpkin company. They bought that pie
recipe from him and with that, Kevin started a nest egg for his dream of
opening a pie house at the edge of town. Nobody thinks he's funny now.
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