How better to have a family “together time” than digging your fingers into a pumpkin, take out its inner slime, and be creative with sharp knives? Nobody cut themselves, and we all had a great time. My pumpkin is the really dilirious, goofy smiley face. Not quite the same as wood carving. I was considering carving a ball and claw foot, but thought better of that. Maybe next year.
I remember carving a pumpkin when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I decided to shave all the surface off and carve it with ears sticking out, nose sticking out, and lips. My parents should have known something was odd about their child. She just couldn’t do a “normal” pumpkin carving like the rest of the kids. We were living in Wisconsin at the time and we set the pumpkin outside for the winter. When spring came, we discovered this little shrivelled pumpkin with lips, ears, and nose – sort of reminded me one of those dried apple faces – it was about 1/2 the original size. I suppose because I took all the outside surface off, it dried evenly. My mother found it several years ago, wrapped it up and gave it to me for Christmas. Can you believe she saved it all these years? Now I’m wracking my brain to remember where I put it. I know I have it somewhere.