Photograph by George Sakkestad
No matter how you look at it, there's big news at the Monte Sereno home of Frank and Sylvia Pollifrone. Last spring, Frank's father planted a pumpkin seedling in a hidden corner of his son and daughter-in-law's newly landscaped yard. Frank tried to weigh the pumpkin on the bathroom scale, but lost sight of the meter when it hit 190. Meanwhile, Sylvia has been doing some growing of her own. The Pollifrones' expected daughter, whom they've already named Jessica, is due any day. Neighbors call the large growth in the yard "Jessica's Pumpkin." Frank is busily monitoring both his wife and his pumpkin, and Sylvia grimaces good-naturedly when he tells people: "We have two pumpkins." Theories on why the pumpkin grew to such proportions abound: Frank's father, who raises rabbits and makes his own compost, favors the "gardener's gold" theory, but Frank insists it's his wife's pregnancy. "She is just an energy magnet," he insists.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 16, 1996.
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