Pumpkins are super in vogue…at least this is true beginning in September and lasting through Thanksgiving. Pumpkin spice lattes, cream cheese pumpkin muffins, pumpkin face masks, pumpkin spice candles, pumpkin patches, and pumpkin pies. Pumpkins festoon shop windows and porch rails, and even the aisles of the local home improvement store competing only with the (gulp) Christmas trees.
And pumpkins aren’t just orange anymore. They come in shades of blue, white, and green. There are sugar pie pumpkins, warty pumpkins, Cinderella pumpkins, and baby boo pumpkins.
When I was a kid, pumpkins were only orange, and you didn’t take a hayride with the headless horseman to find them or pay a fortune. We purchased our pumpkins, destined to become jack-o’-lanterns, at the local IGA. We didn’t have fancy carving tools either. We drew jack-o’-lantern faces with a crayon upon our chosen victims, and Mom or Dad wielded the bread knife. We kids then went to work using tablespoons to scrape out the “guts.” The seeds were carefully separated from the spaghetti like strands of innards, washed, and patted dry. They were then slathered in melted oleo, salted, and roasted in the oven.
We were content watching our pumpkin faces with crooked teeth and squinty eyes flicker in the dark as we munched. Content until Halloween night when we wore inexpensive store-bought costumes (the kind with a plastic mask held in place by an elastic string) to go trick-or-treating. In our little town, we shuffled from house to house and business to business gripping our pillowcases as they grew heavier and heavier. I liked the barber shop best as the barber gave us giant size Hershey bars.
When we returned home with our loot, we were warned to eat only one piece of candy a day or our teeth would rot—we’d end up looking like our jack-o’-lanterns after the frost hit them—teeth cracked and blackened.
I was curious about where the term jack-o’-lantern came from. There are varying stories with long twists and turns. But it comes down to this. Stingy Jack of Irish lore was a mean old cuss who couldn’t get into heaven or hell. He kept a single coal in a carved turnip to light up the darkness as his spirit roamed earth. The Irish and Scots began to make their own versions of Stingy Jack carving grotesque faces in turnips and potatoes. They must grow them big there. The tradition was brought to America where pumpkins offered a bigger and more colorful canvas. Alas, today’s modern jack-o’-lantern.
So, on that note, enjoy the season. Enjoy all that pumpkin magic and let that latte and the legend of Stingy Jack add more than a hint of spice to your life.
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This brought it all back… and I loved every second..
Thank you and your photos make me think so much of Wisconsin!
Ah, the days of trick-or-treating with a pillowcase . . .
Isn’t it great that we can all share memories?
Oh yes,
I remember those plastic masks.
That really gave me pumpkin to think about.
And you gave me a good laugh!
Yes, pumpkins have grown in variety! Great post.
Thanks, Marci. I’m on my way to Turkey. Have a great hobnob.
Those plastic masks, with those little oval breathing holes that pushed against your mouth, and the eye holes you had to squint through. My folks weren’t cool enough to roast pumpkin seeds. I had to wait until adulthood for those.
Yep…those were the ones. One of my costumes was a hand-me-down from a cousin. It was a Heidi costume!
Just the thought of eating pumpkin pie with whipped cream is making me salivate. I remember trick or treating in the small town of Neosho where we grew up. Stirring up old memories is the best!!!
Nice to hear from you Susan, and to share memories!