Pumkins, Catapults, and Midnight Raids

Thanksgiving, a day filled with turkeys, pilgrims, and now, in my family, catapults. Pumpkin Catapults, to be specific. My cousin Greg decided that since Thanksgiving this year was going to be at my uncle's Brand new house on 5 acres out in the country, that a pumpkin catapult would be his contribution to our holiday fun. Unfortunately, the warm, cold, warm, cold weather we have been receiving in the last couple of weeks made his pumpkins of war go mushy, and deflated. So, he enlisted my Mom to go round and find some. After many numerous calls and stops at pumpkin patches, she soon discovered that pumpkins are not to be found anywhere. So, after observing that many houses still have pumkins in front of them, she donned a black mask (figuratively), gloves (it was cold out), and waited for the darkness of night (around 5:30 p.m). I went along for moral support, and if a cop happened to roll by, to divert attention from my Mom's illegal pumking stealing activity.

First steal went off without a hitch. It helped that it was friend of hers, and she asked politely beforehand. We then drove around for awhile, debating the squishiness of pumpkins from a distance, and made our second steal a few blocks away. The lights were on, and being the nice person she was, she knocked and asked politely (I'm sure she would have done a grab and run, but its hard to do when you actually see people in the window) We came out with a total of three. The next stop was in a development called Westgate. There, we found two beautiful pumkins. After watching cars pass, she quickly jumped out, walked across the driveway, and made a grab and dash. After quickly shoving a pumpkin in my lap, we made a quick getaway. After a few blocks, she stopped to evaluate our catch. It was then we discovered that she had grabbed a pumpkin couple created by a little girl named Celine (there was a tag on the bottom of each). Mr. Pumpkin had beady eyes, a felt nose and a goatee made out of glitter and glue, while Mrs. Pumkin looked very similar, she had had white paint hair. She lost her green stem when she got dropped during my Mom's sinister snatch. We grabbed a few more, and than called it a night. There was a total of ten pumpkins, and while removing our bounty to the backyard, one leaked on me. That was the only injury of the night. All I say is that Cousin Greg had better appreciate the trouble my Mom went to get pumpkins!