 Hello, and welcome to Story and Arts for Children here at ACMI in Arlington. My name is Peggy, and this is my friend, Little Bear, and he's all excited about a story he's gonna watch, and we hope you'll watch too. It's all about a pumpkin, and a pumpkin race, and a little boy, and it's just amazing. Everything happened in Maine, and you are going to be very, very excited to watch this. Today we're not gonna have art, but we are going to have a video afterwards, so stay tuned. It's really fun. So I just wanna talk to Little Bear just a minute because he's gonna be watching. He loves to get into all of this. So Little Bear, what do you think? Well, there's something I don't get. What don't you get? Well, I know a little bit about pumpkins, but I don't get. You said that there was gonna be a race? Well, I'm not sure if I said there was gonna be a race, but there is. Well, how can kids get in a pumpkin and race them? That does not make sense to me. Oh, Little Bear. Well, you're gonna be able to watch the movie afterwards, but first we're gonna tell a story about a little boy who wanted to grow a monster pumpkin. I have one right here. Yeah, but that's not monster. You know, this is a regular one, and he starts out with growing ones like this, and he gets really sad because they don't grow into monster pumpkins, and he thinks everything is just, all the effort he put into it was just for nothing. Oh, that's really sad. No, but it has a happy ending. So let's watch. And first, listen to the story, okay? All right, with all my other buddies too. Okay, they're all watching right over here. Okay, buddies, we're ready for the story of the great pumpkin regatta race. Okay, here is our story. It is called the Patchwork Pumpkin Regatta Quilts, and it's about a little boy named Sam, and he lives in this cottage-like house on a road on the way down to Pemacwood Point, and his little dog is there with him. His name is Buckley, and Buckley goes everywhere with Sam, and Sam's favorite place is out back, where on one side of the house, they keep their animals, and the other, they have a garden. And Sam gets to plant pumpkins and all kinds of things every year. He loves to grow sunflowers and tomatoes and cabbages, and what's most fun is he loves to sell them out front of his house. And he puts out the tomatoes, and he spreads out everything, and he puts a little money in his piggy bank, and he has lots of fun meeting summer people on the way down to Pemacwood Point. Well, one day, Sam hopped into the truck with his mom and dad, and on the way down to Damaroscota, they went along the road, and he spied something really funny. There were these big lumps on the ground, and underneath, he knew there were pumpkins there, but on top of the pumpkins, there were quilts. That was strange. Ha, he'd never realized that before. So he had an idea. He thought he would keep it to himself. Went, he went inside the shop they were headed for, and he went to the counter, and he asked the lady in a very, very low voice, do you have any pumpkin seeds? And the lady behind the desk said, well, yes, would you like some? Yes, I would. Yes, I do. I wanna add some to my garden, and that's what I'm gonna do. So when he got home, he got right down on his knees. He knew just how to do it all by himself. He put the seeds in the ground, and his dog, Buckley, watched. Buckley had no idea what he was doing, but he always liked being with his buddy. So, then Sam, in order to, make those pumpkins enormous like they did at Pinkham's Plantation, I'm gonna need some quilts. So he and his mother went upstairs to the attic, and he pulled out pieces of material, and she showed him how to make quilts, and it was more fun. And he took them into his bedroom, and he worked on them, and he worked on them, and he was a good sower. He was, and Buckley watched, but Buckley couldn't sew. He just had fun sitting there watching Sam do his work. And then, Sam put the quilts into a box to store them, just for the right time, when those pumpkins got a little bigger, because remember, takes a few weeks for them to grow, and they were still down on the ground. The night, Sam had wonderful dreams about pumpkins. He dreamt that they were so big, and people were gonna stop along the highway and watch, and whoa, how could he have done that? How do you grow those monster pumpkins? He'd dream about that just about every night, and he'd go out and he'd check his pumpkins, and he'd put more little quilts on them, and they were growing, and he would do little dances around them, and his little hobgoblin, he'd make up little things for them, and talk to them, come on, come on, you guys, you gotta get big, I gotta have monster ones, but guess what? Those pumpkins were not growing very big. In fact, they only grew to be about six pounds. That was not a monster pumpkin. So Sam said to his dad, dad, can we go back into pinkums? I'm growing those pumpkins out back, and it's just not right, they're not growing into pumpkin seeds that are monster ones. What can we do? So his dad took them in the truck, and they went back into pinkums, and they found Buzz Pinkum right in front. And Sam's dad said, well, Buzz, my son has a story to tell you, maybe you can help him out of it. Well, Mr. Pinkum, guess what? The what, son? I bought some of your pumpkin seeds, and they aren't growing. They aren't growing at all? No, they're not growing into monster pumpkins. And then Buzz started laughing. He said, oh, I think I know what happened, son. You don't have to be really so unhappy because there's gonna be something that happens here in Damaroscota that you are going to love, and you're not gonna worry about the fact that your pumpkins didn't become monster ones this year. And so he and Sam, they stepped aside, and he said, now, if you can come to the Damaroscota River on October 12th, but I'm not gonna tell you what's happening there, you're gonna be so happy, and you will not worry this year about your pumpkins. So they shook on it, and Sam left Pinkums feeling a little bit better. He did, and then they drove home, and he was feeling pretty good. And then on the morning of October 12th, guess what? Sam and his family went down to the river, and there were kids inside of pumpkins paddling them, and there was all kinds of noise going on in music. There was a pumpkin race in the river, and there were men or dragon pumpkins off the back end of a truck, and Sam couldn't believe his eyes. These were the monster pumpkins he wanted. And then a little boat went by, and it had kids in it, and they had pumpkins on their heads, and he said, I wanna ride in that pumpkin boat next year. The guy was calling out different things for the race to keep it going, and they stood there and they watched. And then along comes this guy. Can you believe it? He put a little horse. This horse that he'd made a design in the back of his pumpkin boat, and he was sailing along, and then up in the corner, you can see another fellow. It looks like he has a crown on his head, and he's riding along in a little soccer pumpkin. Looks like a soccer ball. These people have so much imagination. Oh, and look at this guy came rolling along. He looks like he's a pilgrim, but kind of a clown too. And if you look at the edge of his boat, what do you see? But a motor. He put a motor on the boat. He's buzzing along. I wonder whether he'll dump. So that was the wonderful surprise for Sam. And that day, he and his family joined the Maine Monster Pumpkin Growing Families Group. And they really do have a group like that in Maine, and they really have that much fun, just rolling their pumpkins in the river and having that race. And when I went up and I filmed this, it was right around Halloween, and there were these wonderful little kids going down the street all dressed up, and they were sending the message, come again next year. And when the story has finished, as it has, you are going to watch how people grow these pumpkins and what really happens in that river. It's all true. So stay tuned, okay? All right, little bear. Okay, thanks for watching. Here we are in Maine. Looking down into the Damascota River. Something wonderful is going to happen in that river within the next couple of days, and we'll be there to see it. Before we get into everything that's going to be happening, we're gonna figure out a few things. This is a place called Pinkham's Plantation. And the man that owns this place, guess what? He's the one that thought up all the activities with other people for the Oktoberfest Pumpkin Regatta. Over here, there's a man on a tractor. And guess what they're doing? They're going to lift this enormous pumpkin onto a truck, and they're going to take it down to the river, and you will not believe what they will do with this pumpkin in the river, but I'm not gonna tell you what yet. I'm just gonna let you imagine what might be happening. This is an enormous pumpkin. And it is well hundred pounds. This man on the tractor is going to be lifting it up, and he's going to be taking it down to the river, the place where we first saw the Damascota River. Here you go. You have to imagine how they're gonna lift it so it doesn't break or squash or fall apart. Before the big event in the river. Here goes the pumpkin from the flat, and it's being lifted. Gradually, gradually, off the ground. The tractor's still running, and what is he going to do with it? We can see what's happening. It's moving. Gradually, gradually, onto this big truck that's just wide enough for the pumpkin. This farmer is going to lure it so it sits on this flat bed truck. Isn't this amazing that they're taking all this time and effort just to move a big pumpkin? Where is he going to go? Here are a bunch of pumpkins. I guess they don't get to go on the trip. Is it because they're funny looking or they're not big enough? I don't know. But they did whatever they were supposed to do by growing. But I think they're just gonna have to sit here and miss all the fun. Let's go to another place to see what people are doing with pumpkins, because you know what? They're gonna be pumpkins all over town today. This just looks like a bunch of people standing around at a house. But what are they waiting for? Well, let's look. There is some kind of a contraption. And I heard it's something like, something you'll blast something off, a cannon. And guess what they're going to stick into it? Pumpkins. And then, look at this pole that goes way up into the air. That pumpkin is going to move up through. All right, gosh, look how far it goes. This pole, and it's gonna be shot way up into the air. And we'll see if we can capture it. And there's gonna be a very, very loud noise we hear. So be prepared. I'm only gonna come down here, out of the clouds where the pumpkin will be, flying out into the atmosphere. Just look and see where we are. Down into the trees. So the pumpkin is gonna land somewhere out here in this lake. And we are just waiting for it all to happen. On the ground, they're loading the pumpkins. Whoops, I hear a noise. And something's going to happen. They just started a truck. And the truck will give the cannon some fuel so that it can make the pumpkin rise way up into the air. You have to be a little patient. A lot goes into doing this. Hey guys, can I talk to you? Hi, how are you? Can I talk to you? What are you guys doing here? Um, we're watching this pumpkin. Yeah, pumpkin can't store it. Have you ever seen this before? No. Something new. What do you think's gonna happen? It's gonna go all the way out there. Wow, have you got ear covers? No. Ear covers? I hear it's gonna be loud. No? Do you guys live up here? Yeah. Oh, just look at these guys. Now who are these guys that you brought with you? These are like 13 minutes. And what's your name? We're the pretty video camera. Hey. Look at the pretty video camera. Look at you with your orange coat on. I love it. I also love it. Great. I love it. We'll stand by guys, okay? The second firing. We were dropped out in the water. We've returned to Pinkham's Plantation at one of the trucks that will be in the parade in just a little while. There is that great big pumpkin that's been loaded up onto the truck. Everybody's going to be amazed because it is so enormous. Let's peek around this corner and see what's going on because this is amazing. What you see are pumpkins. And they are going to be turned into boats. And guess where they are going to end up? These men are setting them up. And tomorrow they're going to be racing them in that river that we saw at the very beginning of this movie. Isn't that amazing? This man is carving the edge of the top of the pumpkin. And believe it or not, he or someone will sit in it. So much work is going into this. This is an amazing boat. Wow. And guess what? They're going to be motors on the back end of these pumpkins. And they're going to be motorized pumpkin boats. They said this was a bad year for pumpkins. Now look, let's look at all these pumpkins. Would you agree with that? They seem to go on forever. Oh my gosh. From the littlest to the biggest. And here they're sitting. Everywhere we look, children are having fun before the boat races tomorrow. Things are going on everywhere. Children are having their faces painted, getting free samples of food. Here people are dancing. Little baby's getting its first dancing lesson. This is really fun. This is the biggest pumpkin yet. And it looks like it can go right inside. What fun. It's bouncing up and down. I wonder what goes on inside. Yeah, we're going on a pumpkin walk. See all the pumpkins that have been carved, especially for this week. This man is carving a ship on a pumpkin. It is just beautiful. You can see the details on the front end of it. Let's go see some more pumpkins. Ooh, look at this guy. Look at his buddy up here. Today is the day of the race. And they're taking that big pumpkin down and putting it in the water. And someone's going to be racing it in just a while. And the tractor's backing up so he can go get some more pumpkins. Can you see what's happening? These pumpkins are in the water. And they're having a race. This NASA plane. I really like it. All right. It looks like he's gaining on it. What's up and break off the rudder? The second one is Steve Winston pumpkin boat. And the right hand, the basic hand, a bunch of spin down there and he's over. That's technically going to be getting shot out. The motor was in the water. You see he's got a small handlebar action? This is nice and round. Show plashoca.