Pumpkins In PA, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, October 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Back in Minnesota and it’s Halloween. I’m home from the 2400 roundtrip air miles, Minneapolis to Pennsylvania. The road trip with Mom from Pennsylvania to Georgia clocked around 1200 driving miles. Fall is beautiful on the East Coast and we had a lot of fun stopping in Fancy Gap, Virginia on the way down and the Pink Cadillac Diner in Natural Bridge, Virginia on the way back to Pennsylvania.
One thing that sticks out for me on this trip is the difference in temperature and light from East to Midwest. When I was snapping sunset photos in Virginia for Twitter, Liz noticed that it was already dark in Minnesota. And this morning when I awoke, the temperatures in Harrisburg and Augusta were surprisingly similar, topping out in the 50’s. Yet in Minneapolis, it was only 32 degrees.
Cold and dark. It’s going to be a crisp evening for the trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood. My sister told me last week that in Pennsylvania, they trick-or-treat on the Thursday before Halloween, something I had not heard of here. As far as I know, there is only one Halloween evening in our neck of the woods. And that is tonight.
The night before I left Pennsylvania, my sister brought home pumpkins for my niece and nephew to carve. She grabbed a few extra for my mother and I and we went to town. I had not worked that hard on a pumpkin in years. I’m not fond of cleaning out the guts. But my sister and niece were masters at expunging the stringy goo from the hollowed out orange shell. I learned a thing or two about pumpkin carving that night:
place a big plastic table cloth down on the carving surface to catch all the guts and gore that fly through the air
use ice cream scoops and scrapers to remove extra pumpkin goo
draw your design out on in pencil on a white sheet of paper before carving
tape the paper to the outside of the pumpkin
use an ice pick to punch holes along the lines of the design (when you remove the paper drawing, you have a dotted line pattern of holes to follow)
when carving in groups, you’ll need plenty of sharp knives and serrated pumpkin carving tools
X-Acto knives work well for the more intricate designs
toothpicks can help repair a misaligned cut from a knife that slipped
you’ll need stamina in the wrists, for punching the design with the ice pick and to complete the carving
for those whose wrists can’t take it or who don’t want to carve, painting pumpkins works great
When we finished carving, we placed votive candles and tea lights inside each pumpkin and arranged them on the front porch for photographs. Mom’s is the painted one over by the scarecrow Paul won a few weeks ago (he’s always been lucky like that). The scarecrow lights up in multicolored LED’s, adding another dimension to the overall decor.
It occurred to me that this was the same porch where we celebrated Halloween in the 60’s and 70’s growing up. Ghosts of all the ghouls and goblin costumes Mom created for my five siblings and I in the house where we were raised danced in and out of the breezeway.
3’s Not A Crowd In Pumpkin World (Dark), 3’s Not A Crowd In Pumpkin World (Light), Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, October 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Happy Halloween 2009. We’re preparing to watch a scary movie and chuckling at the inventive costumes (check out ybonesy’s daughter’s costume this year) of the little Midwest trick-or-treaters that drop by our door. In two days, it will be the full November Frost Moon (will bats be hibernating?). It’s blustery and chilly in Minnesota. Part of my heart is still in Pennsylvania.
-posted on red Ravine, Halloween Night, Saturday, October 31st, 2009
-related to posts: Halloween Short List: (#2) Build Your Own Casket, halloween haiku, Taking Jack To The Cemetery, The Great Pumpkin Catapult
Your pumpkins came out great, QM and gang! Mom’s painted one is delightful. I love that one’s ‘do.
I’m not a fan of getting the stringy guts out either. One year we had a scooper that had a serrated edge. That worked well.
The method you described is similar to kits you can buy, where there is a paper with a design printed out, which you tape to the pumpkin, and then using the mini-pick in the kit, you poke out the outline. But I like that you guys did your own designs and used ice picks. See, who needs fancy kits when good ol’ ingenuity will work just as well (if not better)!?
Oh, and who carved the hammock between palm trees? Perhaps someone longing for a break from the cold (already?)?
I hadn’t heard of the Thu-before-Halloween tradition for trick-or-treating either, QM. Although, I do recall one year when we went out two nights instead of one, and I’m trying to figure out why that was. Probably just being goofy kids who wanted lots of candy. 😉
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ybonesy, thanks. We did make do with what was around the house to carve the pumpkins. The ice pick we used was an old one. Remember ice picks? I don’t think anyone uses them anymore. I used to have a bunch of old utensils. But when I moved in with Liz, I think we got rid of a bunch of them when she packed up the kitchen.
I had a lot of fun pumpkin carving. Hadn’t done it in quite a few years. I didn’t do much when I lived in my apartment in Northeast since the kids rarely made it past the security door. Here, I’d say we had about 15-20 trick-or-treaters last night. That didn’t seem like many to me. How many did you all have there?
The time change back to Standard time feels good today. It’s really earlier than I think it is and darkness will come later. The windy storm we’ve had the last few days has died down. It’s supposed to be a nice day. We are going to watch a football game — Vikings and Packers. Old rivals. Then to a housewarming for a friend later in the day. Sun’s coming out, blue sky. It’s still Fall (not Winter yet!)
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ybonesy, forgot to answer your question. The hammock between the trees was carved by my nephew. I think he said he’s had a tropical pumpkin theme the last few years. That one took a while to carve. The edges of the palms. My niece’s pumpkin seems like the happiest of all to me. A huge smile.
My sister said that the different PA school districts decide when the kids will trick-or-treat. I didn’t quite get why. Something to do with crime deterrent? I’ll have to get more clear on that. I think most districts did it the Thursday before. But there was one that did it Wednesday or a different day. I hadn’t heard of that before (unless there’s something I don’t know about Minnesota). I think it’s one day here. Seemed strange to me to break it up. How would you ever know when the kids were coming trick-or-treating?
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I wonder if that takes some getting used to, going out trick-or-treating per a schedule. And with costumes, some kids could just go out on every rotation.
We have a Halloween ritual where we go trick-or-treating down streets, riding on the back of a tractor pulled hay wagon. The trailer part is loaded with bales of hay for sitting on, and the tractor pulls us all down a few roads. The roads here are very long, so it takes a while to get down them. The houses are spread apart, and often have fences and such, but the kids are undeterred. Because not a lot of kids come by (given that the houses are so far apart and it’s not exactly a suburban neighborhood) each house gives out a ton of candy. So the kids come home with full, full bags of candy. They’re happy and we all have a great time.
No one came to our house this year (Jim was home with a head cold and ready with candy in case anyone did) and I’m trying to remember if any came by last year. I was on the hay wagon last year but I remember Jim saying that one group might have come by. Or maybe none.
We didn’t see many groups of trick-or-treaters. We don’t usually see many but it seems like last year we ran into a larger number. But that’s OK. Our group is huge—about a dozen kids, plus a dozen parents, so we make our own party, hooting and howling and singing along the way. 8)
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QM, did Paul win the scarecrow at a school event? My youngest is lucky that way, too. On her first try in a cake walk at the school carnival, which was last weekend, she won a cake. Unfortunately, it was one of the last cakes left given that she didn’t do the cake walk until the end of the night, so it wasn’t a very pretty cake. It was made with orange batter, so it was completely orange. Something about an orange cake is not very appealing.
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ybonesy, the tractor full of hay and trick-or-treaters sounds really fun. I remember one year doing a hay ride over Halloween but it’s not something I’ve done a lot. I’ve always wanted to take a sleigh ride around the Christmas Holidays. But the years I’ve been most apt to do it, the snow hasn’t cooperated. I always thought sleigh rides were so romantic. Hayrides are just downright fun.
The orange cake sounds great to me. I love the color orange. I found a burnt orange pullover at a second hand store before I went to PA. Everyone coveted it while I was there. I love it.
Paul often wins things. He’s incredibly lucky that way. He’s my mother’s significant other and an all round great guy. He enters raffles sometimes. I think he had won $500 at something when I was home last week. I can’t remember what that was for.
I do believe some people are more lucky than others. It’s just in their nature to win. Maybe your youngest is that way, too. I love and honor that about certain people. It’s a hopeful thing. Liz has parking angels that ALWAYS show up in the tightest parking situations. She also wins a lot of things. I love that about her.
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[…] moon is beautiful in the Fall. Maybe it’s because in October I traveled to Pennsylvania, drove down to Georgia and South Carolina, then flew back to Minnesota, that I paid more attention […]
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I have a friend who lives near Harrisburg, and I make fun on him every year for celebrating Halloween on the WRONG DAY!
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