In October 2003, I bought a pumpkin from the Foreign Buyer's Club. It wasn't cheap, but I knew the elementary school children would get a thrill out of cleaning and carving it. Of course, I was right. ;-)
I took the pumpkin out to the playground during recess and, as the children gathered around, I cut off the top and lifted the stem to reveal the inside of the strange vegetable. One by one, the children reached their little hands inside and pulled out a handful of seeds. When the pumpkin was clean, we carved a face in it and roasted the seeds.
Little did I know that one clever girl took three unroasted seeds home with her...
Which brings us to today, the 28th day of September, 2004. The girl, Yuki, is now a second-grader. Today, she hauled a massive pumpkin up to my desk and explained that it is the son of my pumpkin! She told me that she collected three seeds last year, but lost one. So, she planted two and one grew and grew and grew and now she's got a real American pumpkin!
Her teacher told me that she had been impatient for me to come to school (I visit that school only once a week) because she couldn't wait to show the pumpkin to me.
It was indeed a wonderful surprise and made me feel even happier about my idea to carve a pumpkin and introduce a Western tradition to my precious Japanese schoolchildren. Maybe this year we can plant an entire pumpkin patch in the schoolyard!
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