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NORTON - Don Langevin, like most kids raised in the projects, smashed pumpkins as a kid. Boy, has he come full circle. And I mean FULL CIRCLE, as in circumference.

Langevin, 60, an author and publisher, teaches people how to grow giant pumpkins. A lifelong gardener, Langevin's botanical interests did not peak until 1971, when he went to work for Agway, a large farm and garden cooperative. He spent more than 20 years in that industry as a retail store/marketing manager, then "eight delightful years with the good people at Attleboro Farms in North Attleboro."

An Attleboro native, Langevin has become a gourd expert, a pumpkin contest judge, purveyor of all things pumpkiny (and giant tomatoes, but that's another veggie tale...).

He and his wife, Anne, a native of Baker Street in Attleboro, have been married for 38 years. They have three children.

To get Langevin's gourd, all you have to do is ask. SUN CHRONICLE: Did you smash pumpkins as a kid?

DON LANGEVIN: I grew up on the East Side of Attleboro and the Veterans' project on South Avenue, so it's obvious. I smashed them. It seems only fair that my past indiscretions should be reconciled by others doing to me as I did to them. I once had a 500-pound pumpkin taken from the back of my pickup truck parked on South Main Street across from St. John's Church.

While at Mass, unknowns rolled it out of the truck onto the street. I guess, once they got it out, they abandoned it, because they could not lift and carry it away. It made for an exciting scene as the parishioners departed and the police clogged the main artery into town.

SC: Could you imagine you'd be doing this at this stage of your life?

LANGEVIN: Nothing could have tipped me off to where I would be in my career at 60. To this day, I still cannot fathom how I worked six days a week, attended to family - soccer, basketball, softball, traveling teams, school and what-not - gardened, played occasional golf and managed to paint and write.

Incidentally, I wrote all of my books in 20-minute spurts with morning coffee before 5 a.m. So, if you have the urge to write, find 20 minutes and guard it with your life.

SC: How obsessed have you found certain growers who want to grow a 1,000-pound gourd or break a world record?

LANGEVIN: I've found most giant pumpkin growers to be very passionate about gardening, but that passion also finds its way into other areas of their life. No one who ever broke the world record did it by accident. They did it by intent, and that intention never left their minds. For most competitive giant pumpkin growers, the pursuit of a personal best weight or a world record is a year-round dedication.

Even in the dead of winter when you cannot garden, giant pumpkin growers network, trade seeds, go to seminars - yes, there are seminars - and plan the spring assault. Each year, about 400 to 500 pumpkin growers gather in Niagara Falls, Canada, for the International Giant Pumpkin Growers Seminar. Growers come from all over the world.

At these seminars, for two days a year, I become a celebrity. People bring me their books to sign, ask me questions, and generally stand before me in awe. It is very bizarre. When I get home, I'm still the cook and pool boy. Last year, they inducted me into the Giant Vegetable Growers Hall of Fame. I don't tell this to many people. SC: What's the craziest pumpkin growing story you've ever witnessed?

LANGEVIN: I've heard and experienced so many that it's hard to pick one that stands out. I've seen a 500-pound pumpkin destroy a pickup truck. A Norton friend found this out when he stopped short on Route 123, and a 500-pound projectile hurdled into his truck cab, broke the window, bent the truck bed body, caved in the cab; $5,000 to fix. In this avocation, crazy stories are the norm.

Giant pumpkins are blown up on the David Letterman show every year, compliments of my Sharon friend and competitor, Steve Connolly. Last year, the detonation of Steve's 1,300-pound pumpkin was taped and replayed in slow motion many times on the show. Close friends have been part of show segments on Martha Stewart, Ellen Degeneres, Regis and Kelly, Headline News, MiracleGro commercials, and on and on. It's endless.

Everyone in media seems to want a piece of the action in October. It's sort of like my two days of fame in March. For giant pumpkins, it's the whole month of October. As far as crazy is concerned, most of your readers would find the facts as crazy as the stories. The world record is 1,689 pounds. That's not a typo.

SC: So, what are the uses of a giant pumpkin?

LANGEVIN: Giant pumpkins ranging in size from 800 pounds to 1,400 pounds are turned into boats in annual regattas in Connecticut, New Hampshire, California, Oregon, Canada. These boats are powered by small outboard motors, and their skippers could be considered the most passionate of pumpkin growers.

A giant pumpkin can grow from the size of your baby fingernail to 600 pounds in 30 days. Competitive pumpkins can grow 40 to 50 pounds a day, and sustain 30 to 40 pounds per day for three weeks or more.

Vines can grow three feet overnight. With giant pumpkins, you see unbelievable changes everyday. World class giant pumpkins end up in casinos, car dealerships, mall, banks and anywhere where people go.

The price? $1 to $3 per pound.

SC: What's the real secret to giant gourds, Don? Milk? Steroids?

LANGEVIN: The real secret is the seed. You're never going to compete with seed off the local garden center seed racks. The variety that everyone uses is the Atlantic Giant, but the seeds that they actually plant are the very best of this variety.

Literally thousands of competitive growers have made this seed better by selectively planting the best producing pumpkins every year, then sharing, trading, or selling the seeds to other growers. This process has been going on for 50 years. Finding a world class seed will take some investigation. On Internet online auctions, world class seeds can sell for $25 to $50 each, with many of the top producers going for $500 to $1,000.

I've spent the last 15 years exploring the subject in my three books, How-to-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins I, II, & III, and I'm not done yet.

SC: What are the weighing events like?

LANGEVIN: In North America, virtually every weekend from mid-September through October will have weigh offs as part of fall festivals, agricultural fairs or sponsored events. Locally, one can begin in August with the Marshfield Fair, where my good friend Ray McKay from Foxboro runs the weigh off.

In September, you're likely to enter the BigE Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, but the real competition begins on the first Saturday in October. The Topsfield Fair sponsors the All-New England Championship on Oct. 4, and the Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers meet and weighoff at Frerichs Farm in Warren, R.I. on Oct. 11.

I'm particularly proud of this association and weighoff, because I helped found it in 1993 with John Castellucci of Smithfield, R.I., who set the all time Rhode Island record that year with a 532-pound pumpkin. From this small beginning, the growers of RI and Southeastern Massachusetts have developed into the most progressive and successful in the world.

In 2005, their top 10 average was the heaviest in the world at 1,178 pounds. In 2006, my good friend Ron Wallace broke the world record with the first pumpkin ever grown over 1,500 pounds - at 1,502. The following year, my good friend Joe Jutras annihilated Ron's world record with a 1,689 pound pumpkin.

I recommend the weighoff in Warren to everyone, because you'll see some of the largest pumpkins grown anywhere in the world, and because there is the likelihood that another good friend will break the world record again, surpassing 1,700 pounds.

SC: How hard is it to weigh these giants, which are sometimes 17 feet across?

LANGEVIN: As far as lifting, it has gone from manual to mechanical over the last five to 10 years at the weighoffs. Now, fork trucks do most of the heavy lifting, but each pumpkin still has to be moved by hand out of the garden and then onto the scale at the weighoff.

Some growers have invented special harnesses and winches that help to get the pumpkin into their truck. It helps to have a lot of good, strong friends. I'm lucky that the great guys that maintain the impeccably groomed Norton Country Club greens and fairways can always be counted on to do some heavy lifting.

For more information about Don and his books, go to www.GiantPumpkin.com.