Day 28: Odds and Ends

I’m in denial. This is Halloween week and I am both overjoyed and heartily dismayed. I am excited for Halloween to be here already but once it is, I will have to wait another 364 days till the next one. Sigh.

I got a bit sidetracked when I was writing my October Thought. Last night a few friends messaged me asking if they could borrow things from my costume closet for Halloween. In theory I understand the idea of last minute costumes, but since I plan for mine years in advance I kinda shake my head at them. After we solved the imminent crisis, I started innocently browsing through costume ideas for next year and the year after. 2 hours and 5 costumes later I realized what time it was and shut down my Google search.

Then I typed out my October Thought. I was almost done and my computer decided it was tired and shut itself off. No biggie. I rebooted it and it came on just long enough to laugh at me and then shut off again. When I finally got it up and running my original Thought was lost. It wasn’t a story thank goodness, but the mojo to rewrite it was gone and my eye lids are getting heavy. Since I made you read lots yesterday, today will be short and it will be an accumulation of October tidbits that I have been accruing all month.

1)      In Manila there are people who live in graveyards. Not dead people, live people. They have stores and wells and mail, it’s like the suburbs but your neighbors are really, really quiet and sometimes smell. I have looked up pictures of it and it is crazy. It is incredibly sad, but it gets my creative juices flowing.

 

2)      Also in Manila, you don’t buy your plot and stay, you rent your semi eternal resting place. Plots are sold on a five-year lease. If at the end of the five years the lease isn’t renewed you are dug up and returned to your family or incinerated if there is no one to give you to. Man, Manila is harsh.

 

3)      It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will no longer air on TV. I am greatly dismayed by this even though I own it. It is a holiday TV staple and how dare they take it from me.

 

4)      There is a Vampire Rabbit of Newcastle  upon Tyne in England. The bloodthirsty bunny is basically a gargoyle that sits above the door of a cathedral. People aren’t really sure if it is a bunny, but they have repainted it in modern times to look a bit more menacing and it is said to scare off thieves/intruders. It certainly looks frightening.

 

5)      There was a pop up parade in the town where I work and I totally somehow missed it. I was out on the street exactly when it was supposed to be happening and everyone must have been invisible because I saw nothing. I did however delight a small child and his parents who were walking around doing the scavenger hunt. I opened mom’s window to see if I could help them as they were wandering and looked lost. The little boy took one look at my monster shield mask and his whole face lit up. Mommy look at the monster. He had better have been talking about my shield is all I’m saying. He really liked it and I’m glad I chose to wear that particular one.  

 

6)      I found a discount bag of gummy body parts candy and I still didn’t buy it. I should get a medal or a free bag of gummy body parts.

 

7)      In Goffstown, New Hampshire there is a Giant Pumpkin Regatta and I am jealous that I am not there. People hollow out these incredibly large pumpkins and paddle them down the river. I mean, how AWESOME is that?! Plus they decorate their giant thousand pound pumpkins. I think I have found my people.

 

8)      I just found out that the 25^th is called Frankenstein Friday. Even if it doesn’t fall on a Friday apparently. How could I have missed this milestone? Devastated.

 

9)      And last but not least, the Today Show Bracketween Candy Challenge. Your particular favorite might not be on there, but mine sure was. I took the challenge and my final four were Twix, Almond Joy, Snickers, and Butterfinger, with Twix going head to head with Snickers. Twix won out over all. It was a hard fought win though. What would yours come out as if you did the bracket?

Day 25: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words…..

…..and since that is pretty close to what I normally write, whew, you get some time off for good behavior.

It seems more and more that those in the retail life like to promote holidays before their time, because of that, there have been a few memes and pictures that I have had since August and they are what I am going to talk about today.

I had to go back and look at my picture files because Christmas has been creeping in like a red and white stripped ninja. I see whole aisles dedicated to the holiday, Hallmark starts their Christmas countdown this weekend and last night, one of my coworkers was singing Christmas carols while he cleaned up. Not ok. So not ok, and not just because they are rushing the issue, but poor Thanksgiving gets left out yet again and it’s not even Halloween yet. I’m all for celebrating, but don’t keep rushing us. Let us enjoy the season we are in for a change.

So, as a reminder that we are still in fact in fall, here are few of my favorite pics from this year.

1)      Do Not Feed Hallucinogens to the Werewolves – I like this for obvious reasons. It has a werewolf in it with flying mushrooms and it looks like an actual park sign. It tickles my October funny bone. Werewolves are scary enough they don’t need to be drugged on top of it.

2)      Pumpkin Spice Cologne Pumpkins – I mean come on, pumpkins trying to fit in and wearing pumpkin spice. How meta.  A little pumpkin patch humor for you to start your day with.

3)      The Cereal Aisle – I found this early in the month and what made me really happy, despite the fact that there was lots of monster cereal, was the fact that below it was pumpkin spice cereal. Oh October and your pumpkin spice commercialization….never change.

4)      Cold Stone Boo Licious Ice Cream – it combines all my favorite things, black ice cream, Cold Stone, candy and October play on names. I haven’t had any yet, but it is on my bucket list.

5)      And Speaking of Ice Cream- Ben and Jerry should get some sort of Nobel Prize for holiday deliciousness. I’m sure it’s a thing. I have tried to find this limited edition but it appears to be a very limited edition or else has an invisibility cloak because I have not run into it yet.

6)      Pie Puns in Ads- I mean, is there anything better? I agree wholeheartedly with the caption above.

7)      Decorations – one of my friends sent me this. It isn’t the choice I would make for my yard, but it brings me joy nonetheless. They have a pirate ship on their front lawn and I love the little creatures along the front fencing. I would stop at your house for candy and give you a blue ribbon.

8) Pumpkin Boat Races - I mean COME. ON! First they grow ginormous pumpkins, then they hollow them out like canoes and THEN they race them. (waves hands frantically while jumping up and down to get attention) I am SO in!

Ahh, doesn’t that make you feel more fall like? What fall pictures do you have to share?

October Thought Day 29: Living in a Pumpkin Paradise

There is a quote that says, “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” I don’t know that it would necessarily have to be a pumpkin, but this time of year, I would happily take a pumpkin throne. I am reasonably certain I would also have a pumpkin crown and pumpkin scepter to go with it. If the pumpkin were big enough, and some of them are, I’ll bet I could find someone to carve me an actual throne out of a pumpkin. Oh, now I’m getting ideas….

I meant to go to the pumpkin patch this year; and not to find a pumpkin throne either. I dreamed of all the oddly shaped wonders I could find. I poured over carving templates and crafty ideas. I tried to decide which color I would get and what size. It was a pumpkin delirium that I didn’t want to come out of.

In my pumpkin buying frenzy of a few years past I think I bought 31 pumpkins….ok, it may have been closer to 40. This year I didn’t make it to the patch at all, but I have some pretty wonderful friends who supplied me with plenty of gourdy goodness in all forms. Yesterday I got to carve them. Ok, I had help and it was only one, but it was very satisfying. I bucked tradition and didn’t do my normal face; instead I carved a ghost that looked frightened. On the template I chose the ghost looked adorably alarmed. On my pumpkin representation, he looks scared to death and has jazz hands. Ah well, you can’t win em all. I named him Mortimer.

While I was carving I was thinking about my pumpkin throne and all the different ways we use pumpkins this time of year. Naturally my curiosity got the better of me and I turned to the internet to assuage it. For instance, did you know that this month a champion weight pumpkin at a fair in California tipped the scale at 1,910 pounds (which is more than the weight of a U-Haul)? It had to be brought in on a flatbed truck and moved to the scales with a special hydraulic system. Such a behemoth could be used to make over 600 pumpkin pies, but that’s not even the biggest pumpkin on record. The world record holding pumpkin weighs in at 2,623 pounds. What on earth are they feeding these things, small animals? I am content with the ones that are the size of a standard classroom globe. I have no idea what I’d do with a giant pumpkin other than carve a throne or make a small play house. I went back to the California pumpkin contest and looked at some of their statistics and had a good chuckle, because the first award winning pumpkin won at a whopping 132 pounds. I think pumpkins have gone on steroids since then.

Weighing isn’t the only world record pumpkin related activity around. There are places like Keene, New Hampshire that have set a world record in most carved pumpkins lit outdoors and displayed. There were 30,581 pumpkins used to set that record and I can’t even begin to imagine what that would look like. The good people of Keene have set up a thirty-four foot scaffold to display a majority of the pumpkins, but even it can’t hold them all.

But simply carving in bulk is old news and now there is a new trend in pumpkin mania, pop up pumpkin displays called Rise of the Jack O’ Lanterns. The displays will be made up of more than 5,000 hand carved pumpkins and they will all be lumped together to create one tableau. Think of a dinosaur or a car being made entirely out of pumpkins. Each display will take 10-15 hours to carve and in addition to the large displays there will be smaller works of pumpkin art. When I carve a pumpkin it looks like a third grader did it. These people who basically make sculptures out of pumpkins amaze me. They can do portraits and scenes from paintings; it blows my mind, the creativity of people.

Like my friend who made me a pumpkin diorama. She hollowed out a fake pumpkin and then created a haunted house tableau on the inside. There are bats and toadstools, moss, a mansion, skeletons and more. She even lit it and decorated the outside of the pumpkin. Stuff like that energizes me. What talent and creativity. My other friend painted me a pumpkin man on a rock. It isn’t a big rock but the detail is fantastic. I have it propped up in my room to enjoy and like my fake pumpkin; I will have this rock till the end of days. Both shall be cherished parts of my décor.

With all this pumpkin creativity around, my challenge to you is this, get out of your pumpkin rut and do something different. Carve something new, visit a pumpkin patch for the first time, find a pumpkin celebration or make your own. Maybe even wrap yourself up in a blanket and watch your very own pumpkin glowing by the light of the moon and take a mental picture of it. In short, enjoy the wonderful fall gourd in a way you never have before.  

Day 12: Pumpkin Palooza

I have a confession to make. Yes another one, pipe down. I, am crazy about pumpkins. I know I just got done telling you how leaves and fall magazines were the be all and end all of October, but I was wrong. It is all about pumpkins. I have a kind of pumpkin mania. Really I am the thing that keeps the retail industry open in October. I am a sucker for fall stuff. And if it has pumpkin taste, smell, appearance or anything remotely pumpkin like, I will buy it. I consume copious amounts of pumpkiny beverages, pumpkiny snacks and pumpkiny innards. It is a veritable pumpkin palooza over here. Which, coincidentally (I think not) is the name of our new fall festival this year. Pumpkin Palooza. Well you KNOW that I am going to attend that.
There are so many wonderful things to do with pumpkins. You can use them for bowling or as a bowl/serving dish. You can make scarecrows out of them, or carriages. You can pumpkin chuck them (which for the uninitiated means you basically catapult a pumpkin across a distance using a really big rubber band and your own arm power, it is so much fun). According to fairy tales, if you grow one big enough, you can live in it. Some people grow them incredibly large so that they can either air lift them and drop them on cars, or explode them in front of anxious spectators. What I mean to say is, pumpkins and most everything associated with them are wonderful.
Pumpkins come in a variety of colors, sizes and shapes. I myself prefer the oblong or round, but last year I found some that were shaped like a spaceship and I fell in love. I had no idea there were so many choices. But I guess that is what happens when you introduce a city girl to a farm stand. What, you mean they don't just spontaneously grown in the Albertsons produce bin? Mind blown.

Every year I carve a certain type of pumpkin. He has the same features as the year before. This tradition got started mostly because I am not the worlds greatest pumpkin carver and also because I sit around with so many ideas and can't decide which one to do. So every year I carve a Bob. I don't know why I named my pumpkin creation Bob and not Vlad or Frank, but Bob it was. If I am feeling especially creative I carve other things. Last year I was brave and bought a pumpkin body stocking. The end result did not look anything like the picture and it took forever to try to get the mesh over the gourd. Very disappointing.

This year, along with my Bob, I am going to attempt to paint my pumpkin creations. I have high expectations, so we shall see. But I am quite excited to try something new. Did I mention that I l LOVE October ;)

Day 7: October Bounty

I know that I have said it before, but October is magical. The best things really do seem to happen during this month, and they happen with amazing frequency. I'm sure skeptics will say that I am simply looking for good and surprise, surprise, I find it. But I think it is more than that. I don't believe in coincidence. October really is this wonderful. You don't believe me, then observe a typical day. There was so much wonderful in the day that I am about ready to burst.

1. We took our church picture yesterday. Everyone gathered in a tight group outside and we stood in the beautiful sunshine and smiled like a bunch of crazy fools. It was GREAT! I don't care if you hate having your picture taken. I don't care if you don't like getting up early on a Sunday morning. To have such a massive group of people all fancied up and grouped together laughing and joking was wonderful. There wasn't a frowny face in the bunch and no one really cared that the sun was in our eyes the whole time. It will make for a great memory.

2. I got to finally hug a bunch a people that I have been missing and who have been on my mind. I didn't know they were going to be there. I didn't know that they were going to come into my path. Everything just fell together and I got to share some of my joy with them.

3. I have been saving up for a snazzy jacket and today I finally had enough to get it. I walked into the store and they only had one left. It was the one in my size and it looked great (ok, it makes me look like a hipster biker, but who cares). When I went to check out, a random lady gave me a $20 off coupon.

4. While out and about running errands, my wonderful, fabulous, green thumb extraordinaire neighbor texted me that she had extra pumpkins and whatnot for me to come peruse. It was the perfect day for pumpkin perusal. I mean, you couldn't have ordered a more perfect day. I got to spend at least an hour, if not more, roaming over the hillside, through vines, and across the planting bed in search of perfect, natural October décor. She had Alice in Wonderland sized sunflowers towering high above our heads. The pumpkin patch had taken steroids and overgrown the banks. There were white pumpkins, warty pumpkins, orange pumpkins, green pumpkins, purple corn, orange corn, speckled corn, yellow corn. I was in heaven. I got to feed a skittish cow, toss gourds at chickens (no chickens were harmed in the tossing of said gourds) snuggle an October colored kitten, snuggle its momma and take pictures of bees. I even found a lady bug. It was better than any pumpkin patch and I am truly spoiled to have such a wonderful neighbor.

5. While eating dinner I happened to glance outside at the valley below. There, slowly creeping its way along the riverbanks was a massive fog bank. The sun was just beginning to set and there was a long snake of fog just winding its way across the hills. It was magnificent. I went outside and watched it for at least a half an hour. It expanded and flowed like a living thing. The mists began to branch out and slowly climb the hillsides. Watching the fog was better than watching any TV show...........except...........

6. Tonight was the first of the Halloween episodes for some of my TV shows. It was so good. It was full of everything I love about holiday theme episodes. The characters house was super decorated. The actors had fabulous costumes AND I have been turned on to a new hobby, Halloween caroling! Why on earth didn't I think of that sooner?!

So you see, it really isn't just my imagination, October really spoils me with the wonderful. The only thing missing in this perfect month so far is the fact that I still have not found soy nog yet, but I still have 25 days, so I'm not really worried. Bring on the wonderful October. I can take it!

Going Gourdy: OT Day 17

I love pumpkins and I don't care who knows it. Every October I go a bit....ok, a lot pumpkin crazy. As soon as the first of October rolls around I give myself permission to unleash my inner pumpkin purchasing power. It really doesn't matter what form the pumpkin takes, I just have to have it.
So far this year I have purchased pumpkin bath scrub, pumpkin puree, pumpkin scented candles, pumpkin decorations, pumpkin room spray, pumpkin flashlights, a pumpkin shirt, pumpkin carving tools, and pumpkins of every shape and size imaginable (the count is up to at least 11). I have been given pumpkin socks, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin nog, a pumpkin blizzard and a pumpkin greeting card. I have a cat named Pumpkin, I just made a pumpkin pie, and have been to the pumpkin patch twice and plan to go again. In addition to all that, I hear that there is such a thing as pumpkin Pot Tarts, but I can't find them. And I just got a coupon in the mail for pumpkin cream cheese, but the store doesn't have any. Sigh, I feel deprived somehow.

After all that pumpkin craziness, I still want more. Pumpkins make up at least half of my Halloween and Thanksgiving decor. So it is really no surprise that one of my favorite Halloween decorations is a great big light up plastic pumpkin that stands about three feet tall. We call him the Great Pumpkin after the Charlie Brown Halloween special. He has been in our family almost as long as I have. His paint is faded and he has a few dents from wind storms, but he keeps on bringing me October joy and that is all that matters.

I don't know why I like pumpkins so much, I just do. They come in all sorts of wonderful colors, shapes and sizes. You have to go to a patch or at least a theme decorated part of a store to get them. You can decorate them a myriad of ways. You can paint them, stick things to them, glitter them, bejewel them or plain old carve them.

I think it is the carving that I like the most. It isn't so much the theme of the carving (cuz really I have the artistic abilities of a three year old) as getting to cut into the pumpkin and play with the guts. As a kid that was my very favorite thing to do and still is. I would wait until the designated parent cut the top off and then I got to scoop away. I just love the squish and goo of pumpkin innards. Then I love roasting the seeds. The pumpkin is just the best multi functional food. It is like the Swiss army knife of decorations. You can eat it, carve it, use it for a bowl, decorations, bowling, or pumpkin' chunkin'. You can't do that with a tomato or a carrot. You can probably do it with a watermelon, but who cares, we aren't talking about summer foods.

It is funny to think about. If you were a visitor from outer space or someone who had lived in the wilds since birth and only just stumbled out of the jungle, what would you make of people setting this big orange thing outside their doors with funny carvings on them? Would you think it was an important custom? Would a person who had more than one pumpkin be considered rich to you?

In the days of yore it wasn't even pumpkins that were carved. It was turnips. I know, finally a use for them. Turnips were carved with scary faces to ward off evil. Those people must have been major artisans. Well, they did know how to whittle back then. But turnips are small and I imagine that carving them is difficult.

In the mid 19th century in the U.S. turnip carving gave way to pumpkin carving. Turnips were scarce and costly, so the next best thing was the pumpkin. It was big and plentiful. Plus if a turnip can scare away things that go bump in the night, then a pumpkin that is six or seven times larger can scare away more. From bonfires, to turnips with embers in them, to pumpkins. My how our festivities have evolved.

　
A few fun facts about pumpkins; in keeping with the idea that pumpkin carvings scare demons, pumpkins should be planted on Good Friday. According to the U.S. Census Bureau Illinois produces more pumpkins than any other American state. California, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York also contribute healthy crops. This year, Ron Wallace from Greene, Rhode Island grew the first over one ton pumpkin. It weighed in at 2,009 lbs. That is one big gourd. You could actually climb into it. The record for the most lit pumpkins at one time and in one place, normally goes to the folks in Keene, New Hampshire (Google it, that place is amazing and I want to go there). In 2006, their record stood at 28,952 lit pumpkins. On October 26, 2007, Boston Ma. shattered this record with 30,128 lit pumpkins! Imagine having to count them all.

In 2000, Steve Clarke of Havertown, Pa became the fastest pumpkin carver. Steve carved a pumpkin in a record one minute and 14.8 seconds. I can't even imagine how fast the pumpkin guts were flying. And last but not least, the record for the longest distance in Pumpkin Chunkin (the use of an air cannon to propel a pumpkin across a distance) stands at 4,483.51 feet. That's over 3/4 of a mile!. A team named "Young Glory II" set this record in 2008 at the annual Pumpkin Chunkin contest in Nassau, DE.

So it seems that I am not the only one who loves pumpkins. There are all sorts of fun things to do with them. I think I will go buy some more in celebration. But first let me go eat some of that fresh from the oven pumpkin pie. Did I mention that I love pumpkins ;)

A Fairly Good Day: OT Day 7

It finally came. It took six days, but October finally felt like itself again. It has been a rather mopey October this year and I was starting to get a bit irritated. Where was my October spark? My twinkle? Today I found it and all I had to do was look on main street. Each year my tiny town has what they call the October Faire. I think they add the “e” on the end to seem old timey and quaint, but it really isn’t necessary, it annoys me and it makes me think of fairies, so for the rest of the posting I will just call it a fair without the fancy e. The fair happens on the first Saturday of the month. The main street is closed down, vendors open their doors and craftsman of all kinds set up booths in the middle of the road. There is always a food wagon or two, the firemen always set up their truck and somewhere there is face painting. This year was no different.

In years past I have not had much luck with the October Fair. I either had so much work that I couldn’t go, or when I did go the weather was terrible. I remember one year when the temperature dropped and the rain came at us sideways. It was kind of entertaining to watch people run for cover underneath the tiny portable tents. We all stayed huddled up in miserable clumps staring at one another until the rain let up for a few minutes enough for everyone to scurry to the safety of their cars and home to dry out.

This year however, everything was perfect. The sun was out, but it wasn’t too hot. There wasn’t any wind or rain and I didn’t have any work to keep me from enjoying the festivities. The same food trucks were in attendance and though I never did find the face painting booth, I did see evidence of it on many small children’s faces. The vendor theme seemed to be babies and politicians. If someone wasn’t selling baby quilts, blankets, burp cloths, jammies or pacifier chains, then they were stumping for election or reelection for one office or another. It made for an odd pairing mostly because no babies were in attendance at all so the politicians had no tiny, chubby faces to kiss, and for the vendors there were no parents to see the baby products too.

At one point both mom and I needed a breather and a handy bench appeared for us outside of a flower shop that I swear never has any customers and is always closed, today being no exception. This bench turned out to be the best seat in the whole fair. From our vantage point we got to watch the mayor drop ping pong balls for kids from atop the raised fire truck ladder. I’m certain the balls had some sort of prize associated with them from the way the kids pounced upon them, but I could be wrong. At least it looked fun and there was much cheering. A few friends sauntered up to us and stopped to say hi and give out hugs. But my favorite part of our bench was that we were right across from a rather entertaining gentleman who was dressed partly like a prospector and partly like a cowboy. He had a microphone and some very interesting stories to tell. Most of what he said we really couldn’t understand, though he was quite animated about it. But every now and again words like whiskey, moonshine, afoul of the law, and assorted other gems floated to the forefront of the story. I assume it was a story anyway, and it sure did seem to tickle his fancy. Ours too. Every now and then he would burst out laughing this raspy cough/gargle sort of laugh. I’m pretty sure what he was saying wasn’t meant for kids to hear, but sadly, or maybe fortunately, only mom and I seemed to be listening to him. He didn’t seem to care about his lack of audience and kept right on talking. I’m fairly certain he was supposed to using the mic, in fact I think he was the MC, either way mom and I loved him.

Once we felt good enough to continue on, we went back to the important task of booth perusal. Mom eyed a snazzy black Dodge Viper while I looked at spangly Halloween bracelets. Hey, we each have our priorities. The best purchases of the day came from a local farmer and his wife and an artist from Baker. Though mom would disagree and say that the lady who sold her a teddy bear dressed up like a jack o’ lantern was by far the best vendor in the place. The artist from Baker painted scenes on wine glasses and a few bottles. On most of the glasses she had only done a few traceries or small pictures, but on one bottle she had the full depiction of Edvard Munch’s The Scream. Other than a few paintings by Kandinsky or Vettriano, the Scream is one of my favorites. It now proudly sits on top of my bookshelf and despite the fact that it is October colored (another bonus) it will stay up there year round. I may or may not have let out a giddy squeal when I saw it.

As wonderful as the bottle was, the purchases from the farm couple are what really made my day. While mom and I listened to the western gentleman in charge of the microphone prattle on, we had ample time to evaluate the wares of the booth across from us. This couple was selling the most magnificent pumpkins I have ever seen and I am horribly picky when it comes to my pumpkin purchases so that’s saying something. There were shorts ones, tall ones, round ones, green ones, white, grey and spotty. I was pretty sure I had died and gone to pumpkin heaven. They were all so perfect and arranged so nicely that for a good long while I thought they were just decoration for the booth. Mom finally had enough of me hemming and hawing about wether or not they were for sale and finally shoved me in their direction. I shyly enquired of the proprietress and found out they were for sale. I then proceeded to blow her mind and pick out 4 of what I thought were the best of the best. Her eyes slightly bugged out of her head and I instantly became her new best friend. Either they were having a really slow day or no one had ever bought four pumpkins at one time before. She immediately grabber her husband so that the two of them could get me situated with my purchases before I disappeared.

I was very enthusiastic to buy the perfect pumpkins but there was just one problem. We did not have a teleportation device handy to zap my bulky new friends into my car. No problem said the man, he would personally carry them for me. I felt awful (cuz he was about 80 and didn’t really look like he needed to be hefting large pumpkins all the way to my car) and a bit irritated because I am no shrinking miss and am quite capable of carrying my own goods thank you very much. But he wasn’t doing it to be patronizing he just wanted to be helpful. So I reluctantly let him carry one, and he reluctantly let me carry another all the way to my car. We had a lovely chat. He told me that he personally cared for and grew every pumpkin in the booth. He said he was very sorry to see the one pumpkin he was carrying go, as it was his favorite. He wasn’t putting me on either. He really meant it and was kinda getting teary. I felt bad and offered to pick a different pumpkin just so he wouldn’t have to part with it. He assured me that he thought it was going to a good home and that he was ok with me having it. Once we got to the car he insisted that it ride in the passenger seat and then told me that I needed to drive slowly and avoid sharp turns so that I didn’t jostle it. I promised that I would. It was the sweetest thing.

Carrying the pumpkin for me turned out to be a bit much so when we got back to the booth he let me take the remaining two to my car without him. When I returned to thank them and get my change, they handed me a bag of mini pumpkins free of charge and told me to have a happy Halloween. I almost cried it was so sweet. After the fair was over, mom and I got to watch them load up their truck full of pumpkins and drive away. We were both sad that we didn’t buy more. And then we kicked ourselves for not getting the name of his farm. Even now, writing this thought, I am not sure the pumpkin man and his wife were even real. How come no one else saw how perfect those pumpkins were and didn’t snap them up? People should have been swarming the booth. For the rest of the month, I will look at my four beauties and their tiny counterparts and think of the pumpkin man and his wife.

After all of our goodies had been loaded into the car, mom and I ambled back down to the local coffee joint and stuffed ourselves full of cider, spiced pumpkin lattes and pumpkin muffins. We got the added bonus of sitting near a very talented oldies cover band and whiled away the rest of the afternoon listening to them. It was a great October outing. People were friendly, the weather was great. We found special trinkets that neither of us expected to find. We didn’t want the fun to end.

It was a truly great October day that actually felt like an October day. That is just one of the things that I love about this month. Days like today. You start the day thinking one thing is going to happen. And it does, but better than you ever could have imagined. I truly felt the magic today. I hope you do/did too.