I apologize to those of you haven't quite gained closure with THE BIG SHAQ. I know, I know, I strung you along all summer. You grew close to the story, and felt like somehow you knew him. Some of you were genuinely concerned when you read about the wind storms that threatened the big orange giant. You checked the blog regularly to see his progress. And then suddenly,,,, it was over. He froze, sat around for a month,won the competition, and that was It,it was over. SHAQ was done. No parting gifts, no funeral, no closure, no nothing! And for that I apologize.
I should have kept typing, kept telling his story, kept him alive. It's over now, and what's done is done. From ashes to ashes, dust to dust, Shaq is now manure once again. He was fed to a couple of hungry hogs owned by a local farmer. I was about to chop him up and till him under, but a thought struck me.
"Hello, John?"
"yeah"
"Do ya think them hogs of yours would eat a giant pumpkin?"
"Yep, I'll come pick it up later"
"OK, see ya"
John showed up around dusk and we loaded up the back of his Tacoma. I ran into him a couple of weeks later and he said they gobbled em' up.
Before John took him away I took out the seeds, Two hundred and sixty two of them.
And that's that. SHAQ is done. He only lives on in the minds of yesterday getting bigger and better like memories often do. Like a Dominique Wilkins dunk, getting more magnificent every time it's retold. It won't take long for the legend to spread from generation to generation with the other stories of valor. The Big Shaq- The pumpkin that has set the standard for all other pumpkins to follow. The greatest pumpkin of all time.
I think Pumpkin growing for me is over. Nothing left to prove. Shaq has moved on to greener pastures on the other side and would want it no other way. His greatness remains.
