Pumpkins

Halloween is not my favorite holiday, not at all. I really don't understand what it is that we are even celebrating. Scantily clad women? Bloody chainsaws? Heaping piles of candy? But although I don't like Halloween, "Autumn is the years last, loveliest smile." I love the bright colors, the cool air, apple cider, and even pumpkins. Yes, those funny little squash have provided many wonderful memories for me.
I don't know exactly how the idea came about, or who first suggested it, but when I was little my sister Erica and I ran a pumpkin stand outside our house. Most little kids sell lemonade, we sold pumpkins. Each year in the spring, we would set aside a small section of the garden specific for our pumpkins, then through the summer, we would care for the pumpkins until they were ready to be picked and sold come October. Although we sound so professional and responsible, it must be noted that all the gardening and weeding and work associated with being underage gardener/entrepreneurs came only at the frequent urging and request of a very patient manager...our mom. I do however remember rotating the pumpkins to prevent them growing flat on one side, and carefully arranging them outside on our picnic table and sitting outside for hours waiting for anyone to walk by. We made $60 one year, a monumental achievement for a 7 year old.

(This picture isn't from our garden by the way, but a pumpkin patch)

I have so many other good memories of carving pumpkins with my family year after year. I learned to love that feeling of reaching into the pumpkin to pull out the glupe, then roasting the pumpkin seeds up until the time that I left for college.

Which is why I dragged my in-laws into going to a pumpkin patch and carving pumpkins with me this last weekend. We ended up finding a patch near Michelle's where we could get a pumpkin then head over for dinner. My fond memories tend to just push aside the realistic truth that pumpkin patches aren't much more than scattered round balls sitting in a giant dirt field. Not really that exciting, but I loved it anyway. We had a great dinner and played some football in the back to complete the evening. So fun. So thanks everyone for entertaining my childish ideas and carving pumpkins with me. It was so fun and helped me feel like I was 7 again, if only for a moment.

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