Toenail Trivia- What the heck is a Pumpkin-Seed?
When reading the list of nicknames for the toenail do you every wonder where they came from? Elephant Toenail to me is a match. I can see that nickname, but some of the names are really obscure- like one I was thinking about the other day- The Pumpkinseed.
What the heck is a Pumpkinseed. Yeah, I know what a pumpkin is and I know they have fairly large seed, compared to a strawberry, but I don’t think so. So what say you?
Where did the nickname Pumpkinseed (PumpkinSeed or Pumpkin Seed) come from and how did it become associated with our favorite knife pattern?Then when I was going through some of my old “collector” stuff I ran across a picture of a sunfish- the fish low and behold there was the name Pumpkinseed. I know Joe Seale told me the Old Timers called our knife a sunfish because it was about the size of a small bream or crappie found in the lakes and ponds, but I didn’t connect Sunfish and Pumpkin-Seed.
Now to you more mature (read: Old) guys out there, especially you fishermen (& women), you may have already known this- but while I have been fishing, I am not a fisherman. NOTE: This is exactly why I built ET.com- to archive “stuff” like this.
Things that will be forgotten as the years go by. Things like where the heck did the nickname Pumpkinseed have to do with our beloved pattern.Here is what I found:
So give me a clue or a tidbit and off I go….
Here is some other info I found about the PumpkinseedPumpkinseed (comes from the Sunfish (as in the fish) family)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) is a freshwater fish of the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. It is native to northeastern North America, from New Brunswick to South Carolina but it has been introduced elsewhere in North America as well as throughout much of Europe where it is considered an invasive species.
Pumpkinseeds reach a maximum length of about 40 cm (16 inches), although sizes of 15–20 cm (6–8 inches) are more typical. Weights are normally less than 450 grams (1 pound), although larger specimens can be encountered. The fish present an oval silhouette and are very compressed laterally; it is this body shape, resembling the seed of a pumpkin, which provides them with their common name. The coloration includes orange, green, yellow, or blue speckles on an olive back, yellow sides and a yellow to orange belly and breast. As with all centrarchids, they have sharp spines in the dorsal and anal fins.
Pumpkinseeds prefer shallow water with some weed cover. They are often typical of ponds and small lakes
CentrarchidaeFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The sunfishes are a family (Centrarchidae) of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes. The type genus is Centrarchus (consisting solely of the flier, C. macropterus). The family’s 27 species includes many fishes familiar to North Americans, including the black basses, rock bass, largemouth bass, bluegill, and crappies. All are native only to North America.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:08 am
I finally knew the answer to something and then read the rest of the story. We use to fish in a small creek when growing up and catch Pumpkinseeds all day long. I didn’t know if it were a correct name but thats what we called them. It was just another name for a sunfish to us. That name brings back a lot of good memories of a rural childhood.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:44 am
That’s great, Barry. I didn’t have a clue at first. But you are right, it does bring back memories. I loved to catch bright colorful sunfish…and they can get pretty big too. I too grew up down South..in the Heart of Dixie!
Glad you liked this post….
Thanks for sharing that with us!
April 12th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I hadn`t heard them called pumpkinseeds around here. I`ve known them as sunfish or bluegills. You learn something new every day.
Sometimes hunting down toenails is a little like fishing, there is always the one that got away, and there are lots of “fish stories”, plus it`s great sport.