There are some people who toss out their pumpkins almost the very second that Halloween ends. There are some that let them hang around until Thanksgiving, and then promptly dispose of them, because Heaven forbid we have pumpkins at Christmas.
As you can probably imagine, I am neither of these.
I believe in holding onto a pumpkin, and keeping it in sight, until the day comes that it’s squishy, moldy, or otherwise rotten. My record holder lasted until exactly Halfoween (that’s May 1st on the Gregorian calendar) before having to be put out to pasture.
That said, we lost one yesterday. The first pumpkin of the 2019 season to depart for whatever the pumpkin version of the Rainbow Bridge might be called. (Rotting Bridge?)
Our dearly departed was purchased on my vacation to Delaware last September, from a little farm called Fifer Orchards. She (yes, she was a she, as she eventually wound up with a drawn-on face with eyelashes most human women would kill for) was known as a “cannonball” due to her small size and round stature. Cannonball pumpkins don’t seem to be especially common in my home state. As a child, I was always drawn to smaller pumpkins but they were never so perfectly round as the cannonballs. While digging through the baskets at the farm that day, I came across two that seemed absolutely perfect, so I purchased them (along with frozen apple cider, which I wish was a thing year round) and they made the trip home with me. This particular pumpkin had an interesting lifespan, as the only “natural” pumpkin to end up with a face this year. She also at some point sort of merged with the largest pumpkin in the house and became a tiny head on a huge body. She appeared in many photoshoots on Instagram this year as well, though sometimes not showing her face. I do already miss that expression. She was a great go-to when I needed something a little extra in a photo.
It’s always hard to say goodbye to my “natural” pumpkins, even when I have so many of the “artificial” variety to enjoy year-round. I suppose on some level it makes it seem like Halloween season is even further away, that the relics of the time of year when I feel most alive are slowly dying.
But somewhere out there, new pumpkins are waiting to be planted. There is always a pumpkin patch waiting to burst into existence. We remember the old, and look forward to the new. Truth is, Halloween is never too far away.
Stay spooky, my friends.
PS, Google the subject line of this post if you want to see a really cool and creepy piece of artwork!
R.I.P. I feel sad because I was the one who draw the face.
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