Now, if anyone opened the gates... the pumpkins would fall... but, to the best of my knowledge, no one ever has. So... every year at Halloween, five pumpkins sit on top of the gates... the ugliest pumpkins anyone has ever seen. It is not known if Forrest leaves them for the birds or if he removes them the following day and feeds them to the animals.
However, there is an old tale... which very few people remember... not even Forrest himself... even though his father, and his grandfather, and his great-grandfather told it. A strange tale which claims that at midnight these pumpkins come to life. That's because a mischievous creature known as the Halloween Goblin... who is always on the prowl, looking for something scary to do... casts a spell over all the unsold pumpkins that brings them to life.
Now they do say that the reason the Goblin gives them those few hours of life is because he feels sorry for them... but I’m not at all sure I believe that. I’ve never heard of a Goblin doing nice things for any reason.
Anyway, they don't jump off the fence and roam around town... and the spell ends at sunrise. But don't get too close or you might get a finger bitten... or perhaps the tip of your nose... or some other body part. They will grab whatever they can reach... even the hair on your head... and you will not be able to shake them off... their grip is too strong.
Of course, we don't know if they have actually bitten anyone... because no one will venture close enough to them to find out. Now this could be just a story, made up to scare folks away on Halloween... and it would be just the kind of thing that Forrest would do. But we have no proof of that either.
Come to think of it, we don't really have any proof that the pumpkins really come to life. I don’t think anyone has tested that theory... and I can understand why.
Nor do we know if the Halloween Goblin is actually real... or if he's just a figment of someone's imagination... or perhaps it's just a story that Forrest made up... and I will never tell!
