The Great Pumpkin

Last night I had a great time. On my way home from work yesterday I went searching for a pumpkin to carve. I looked high and low but I couldn’t find one of the size and color and type that is usually associated with Halloween. Finally I found one at Walmart…good old Walmart. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted because it was too small. It was the size you would generally associate with making pumpkin pies. That’s okay. It turned out to be fine. I took it home and carved it into a jack-o-lantern, put a candle in it and set it outside on my doorstep. The old caretaker who watches over our street came by and became fascinated with it as did some of the neighbors. They had seen pictures of jack-o-lanterns, and cheap plastic jack-o-lanterns from China, and jack-o-lanterns made out of clay but to see one carved out of a real pumpkin was something new. I received a lot of questions about how I did it. How did I make it hollow? How did I put the light inside? How much time did it take? Everyone was very happy with my pumpkin.

Later in the evening my gal Gina came by with some of her little relatives to go “trick-or treating” which is fairly new to them also. We also had some trick-or-treaters come to the door, especially when they saw the jack-o-lantern. They don’t say “Trick or Treat” like they do in the United States. Instead they say “Queremos Halloween – Dulces, Dinero, o Travesuras!” which means “We Want Halloween – Candy or Money or else Pranks”.

After trick or treating the kids came in and we cooked hot dogs and sang songs and pretty much just goofed off. It was one of the nicest Halloweens that I have had in a long time.