You Were Wondering If Wilson Is Orange Yet?

I wrote a story a while back [Sept. 17^th] about a pumpkin—we named him “Wilson”—that began growing in our yard after Nadia threw out the remains of an old pumpkin by some bushes after Halloween, last year.  Nadia wasn’t cultivating pumpkin plants on purpose.  There was nothing intentional about this, Wilson just began growing on his own.  Back in September when I wrote the original story about Wilson he was completely green, as you can see from the picture that accompanied that story.  And we wondered if he would ever turn orange.  Come on, who ever heard of a green pumpkin?

Well, Nadia did some research [that means she typed some key words into Google] and she read that when a pumpkin is picked from the vine it will turn to the orange color that we’re all familiar with.

Yesterday, someone asked me, “Hey, how is Wilson doing?  Is he turning orange, yet?”

Those questions got me thinking that I should probably provide an update.  So, I took a picture of Wilson earlier today—it’s now early October—and you can see that, yes, he is slowly, gradually becoming more orange.  I don’t know how the ripening process happens, but Wilson is starting to look like the kind of pumpkins that we all know and love.  He’s got a ways to go still, sure, but he’s getting there.

Now, I had no idea when I took the photo earlier today, that I was in for quite a surprise.  But later this afternoon, something happened. 

I accidentally walked into the bathroom without knocking on the door, and my jaw hit the floor.  I discovered that Wilson hadn’t been turning orange, naturally.  I caught Wilson with some of Nadia’s make-up and other cosmetics.  That’s right, Wilson was turning orange…but it was all being done artificially!  It was Orange-In-A-Bottle!

I had heard that pumpkins do this kind of thing, sometimes, but I never guessed…that…well…Wilson?  Really?  Wilson is using Orange-In-A-Bottle?

Boy, am I stunned!

But you know what?  I have to admit.  I keep going outside to peek at him and the truth is, ….he’s actually looking pretty good!

So, I’ve got to get running.  I’m going to Walgreens to get some…well, never mind…I’m not telling.  But I’ve got a feeling that soon I’m going to be looking a lot better.