Happy Halloween

For the last 15 Halloweens I have gone to Fernwood Elementary School to carve pumpkins in Mr. Martorelli's classroom

The first year, I had all of the kids bring their pumpkins in. We covered the floor with newspaper and jumped into gutting the 19 orange jack-o-lantern's to be.

We only had to do that once. The mess, the smell, the chaos. It was all enough to truly make Halloween scary.

Since then it is a prerequisite to have only clean pumpkins brought into school. The mess, the smell and the chaos can stay at home.

Every year I carve between 18 and 22 pumpkins. (over 15 years that's about 300). This year it was 19.

I spent the entire day carving. Each student was invited up individually and we had a brief conversation about what kind of pumpkin they wanted. That first year after struggling through Pokemon characters, super heroes and family pets, I decided that naming a feeling was much more effective than giving me specifics. Now the options are goofy, funny, cute, scary, very scary and really, really scary.

It was as fun and exhausting as ever. I love that it is my Halloween tradition. In a way, it is my version of going trick or treating. I get to create goofy, funny, cute, scary, very scary and really, really scary, after all. Happy Halloween.

Be good,
Scott