Pumpkins

Teach is so talented!

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. The best part is the chocolate, but there are other things I enjoy too. I told you last week about the Dog Walker’s corn maze. I love the decorations as long as they don’t get bloody or gory. Except for the crowds and the parking, I love going to the parades at the elementary school. My kids line up in grade order and walk through the entire school, including the gym (where they cram in all the parents and grandparents).

But when I was a kid, the Halloween parade was an actual parade! We gathered the entire school, marched right out the doors and down main street. Shop owners and workers stepped outside to watch and wave as we crowded the sidewalks and pushed and shoved our way down to the city building where our parents found us and picked us up. In the 1970s we didn’t worry about being kidnapped or checked out. It was a small town and everyone knew everyone else.


One thing we didn’t really do as kids was carve pumpkins. My parents had a garden, but we never had pumpkins growing in it. Occasionally we were given some near Halloween, and then Mom might carve them, but she always used the leftover pumpkin to turn into something delicious to eat.

I personally don’t like carving pumpkins. The one time I do remember trying it as a child, I totally messed it up. No one explained that you had to cut the top on an angle so it didn’t fall in. And I hated that messy, sloppy, seedy glop that you have to pull out before you screw up the cutting part. I still pretty much feel that way.

Thankfully, my sweetie loves this particular activity and he is happy to teach the kids. Some of my older kids can cut amazing designs! Last year Bossy made one with a pic of Lightning McQueen carved into it. It was amazing! I will take some pics after we carve (well, I watch) them this weekend.

But that’s not the story I wanted to tell you. I wanted to tell you about our first Halloween together. We had been married for about six weeks and we lived in student housing at the University of Utah. Our little circle of apartments had a Halloween party and they had a contest for the best pumpkin. My sweetie was all over that. Even though we were broke, we invested a couple of bucks in a medium-sized pumpkin. My sweetie did a good job with the face and then we decided to dress it up. We added a baseball cap and my favorite mitt. In our humble opinions, it was BY FAR the best pumpkin in the contest. We were so bummed when we didn’t win! It was years before my sweetie would agree to enter another carving contest. He was certain that all of them were rigged.


Look at this huge pumpkin we grew in our own garden this year! It’s about 15 inches high and very heavy. Suggestions on carving patterns? Maybe I can find a contest…one that’s not rigged…