The jack o’lanterns we had at home were simple. Mother allowed us to draw the faces on the shells and she did the carving. Too many lines, and my mother simplified the design. She wasn’t very artistic, but, I didn’t say she wasn’t smart. So, if you are like my mother, clever, but not feeling very creative, I have some examples of alternatives to carving the family jack o’lantern. I have also included a couple of ideas for jack o’lantern accessories that will dress up even your most simple design.

The makers of Mr. Potato Head found pumpkins to be a perfect palette to expand the uses of their designs. The “Pumpkin Push Ins” are available in Witch, Pirate, Princess, Fireman and, my personal favorite, Ninja! You can also buy a bucket of non-specific face and body parts to create your own unique 3 dimensional pumpkin. Just remember, since these add-ons actually pierce the skin of the pumpkin, you won’t be able to use it later for cooking purposes.

Along the same lines as the push-ins, but with a unique twist, are the many ideas from “Pumpkin Wear”. The accessories made by Pumpkin Wear include decorations that attach to the pumpkin to make it a Scarecrow, Witch, Black Cat, Spider, and more. I particularly like the spider, that has a votive candle at the end of each leg. These might work best as indoor decorations or centerpieces, but they certainly are a unique way to turn an ordinary pumpkin into something extraordinary!

Another alternative to carving your gourd is painting. Your pumpkin paintings can be as simple or as complex as you want. Sketch out your idea, and use fine-line dry erase markers to mark it on the skin of the pumpkin. Any good acrylic craft paint will work for your purposes. Don’t limit yourself to the flat acrylic paints. Try some metallic, flourescent, glow in the dark, or glitter paints for special effects. Even if you are making a carved design, painting might enhance your masterpiece. Another reason to consider painting your pumpkin is that, after Halloween, you can still cook it down and use it to make pumpkin pie, bread or other pumpkin goodies!

My youth was in a gentler time, when children could play at public playgrounds and walk home from school without fear. Poodle skirts had given way to mini skirts, but only the city girls were wearing those. Neighbors had lived on the same block for generations, and knew each others’ names, shared each others’ interests and gathered for cookouts and Sunday picnics. I believed that “Father Knows Best”, and that the perfect Halloween costume included a plastic mask with a small, narrow hole cut over the mouth, so that you could stick your tongue out.

Shopping for Halloween costumes was done at the Dime Store. These magical places sold everything a person could possibly want, from fabulous jewels ( I spent 89 cents on the giant aurora borealis crystal flower earrings that I gave my mother for her birthday!), to toys ( I remember the basket of hobby horses that were named “Silver” and “Trigger” ), to glassware and even small tools. In the fall, the Dime Store was transformed into a glorious harvest wonderland of plaid and colored leaves and, most importantly, the boxes of the newest and most wonderful Halloween costumes. Brand names like Collegeville and Ben Cooper presented both the traditional ghosts, witches, monsters and princesses, as well as the stars of stage and screen. As a rule, the costumes included a printed tunic that tied in the back, sometimes pants or a skirt to match, and the mask. Masks covered the face only, and were held on by elastic bands that stretched around the back of one’s head. They had holes for the eyes and that odd narrow hole at the mouth, on which more than one of us cut our tongue. Some even had holes cut out where the nostrils might be, for better ventilation. You could sometimes buy the masks separately, and often, more creative mothers did just that, and then built a costume around it.

One of the most memorable Halloweens of my childhood found me dressed as Mickey Mouse. The costume was all one piece, a tube, rounded off at the top, with a hard plastic front containing the molded and very colorful image of Mickey as a band leader, which was sewn to a fabric back. There were eyeholes and the mouth hole cut into it, and 2 slits on the sides to stick your hands through. I was particularly proud of this costume, because i was the smallest in my class, and by holding my hands at different levels, I could appear to be much taller than I actually was. Some of the older children were dressed as the Lone Ranger and one brave lad even came in a Beatles costume, although I couldn’t tell which of the Fab Four he was supposed to be. The variety was endless.

Today’s Halloween costumes are much safer than they were back then. Gone are the masks that obscure a child’s vision. Fabrics used are flame retardant. Many costumes contain light up or reflective features to make the wearer more visible by headlight and flashlight. The variety is still endless, and still feature traditional Halloween monsters as well as popular stars of today. Although the Dime Store has all but vanished from the downtown streets of America, costume shopping is still done in department stores and discount super stores, as well as the more convenient and versatile online retailers. The one thing that has never changed at all, is that in August, when the “Back to School” decorations go up, I am still daydreaming about my Halloween costume.

• Dry Erase markers, if you are free-handing your Jack O’Lantern design. They wipe off with no trace!
• An icepick or awl to mark your design into the skin of the pumpkin, if you are using a carving pattern.



• A sharp, long bladed knife, to cut the “lid” and make any long smooth cuts in your design.
• A scoop, to remove the pumpkin guts and seeds, and also to thin down the wall of the pumpkin on the side you will be carving. You will want the thin wall of the pumpkin no more than 1/2 inch thick.
• A small, sharp, thin-bladed knife, for more intricate cuts.

Is it time to try something more complicated, or more adventurous this year? Then consider the following list of additional tools that I recommend for more versatility in your carving experience.

• A jig saw. Used gently, and especially on really large pumpkins, this can be a huge time-saver!
• A drill saw. Pictured here, the drill saw, usually used for dry wall, allows you to cut in any direction without repositioning the blade.
• Linoleum cutters. If your carving pattern includes areas that will remove the skin, but leave some of the flesh for shadow effects, linoleum cutters are an excellent sculpting tool. The solid round handles make for a comfortable grip when working on large areas.



• Dremel tool. This small handheld drill is capable of the most precise and intricate cuts and saves hours of painstaking labor. It is such a popular method of carving pumpkins, that Dremel makes a model specifically for that purpose!
• Exacto Knife. A good set of Exacto knives are a must have for any craftsman, and they will prove very useful for the tiniest and most precise cuts. I have a set of blades that mount into a comfortable handle, and have been known to substitute a jig saw blade for some carving purposes.

Armed with the proper tools, there is no pumpkin carving design that should prove too difficult. Just add patience and about 4 hours of free time to your list of materials!

Let’s suppose, however, that you want a design that is unique and personal. Something like, your family’s faces on a row of pumpkins, or your house as a haunted mansion, or your business logo. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Of course, you can’t download and print such designs, but, with a little instruction, you can make your own! Just always remember that you are designing a “negative” image.

Let’s start with a simple one. I’ll use a family photo, and I’ll open it in any photo program. Usually one comes on your computer, or with your digital camera, but you can find plenty of free programs online to do this job for you.
First, I am going to rotate the whole picture, although you can leave it at any angle you find pleasing.
Next, change the picture to greyscale. This will usually be found in the “Color” tab of your photo program. It may also be called “Discard Color Information”.
Then, find the brightness/contrast controls in your program. Start with brightness, and slide it bright enough that you lose most of the detail of the picture. Then increase the contrast to bring out only the most dramatic shadows. Keep this up until you have a completely black and white flat pattern of the face.
Next, clean up your design, smoothing the edges of the shapes and keeping in mind that you will be cutting away anything that is black. Don’t leave floating islands of white, they must be attached to the edges somehow. Once you have cleaned up your image, you have your carving pattern.

If you have a subject in mind that needs more detail, then increase the brightness and contrast slightly less, so that it leaves some grey areas. Try the “posterize” option in your photo program to reduce the photo to flat and well defined areas. In this case, you will cut away the black areas completely, but you will only remove a partial layer of the areas of your pattern that are grey. The light will shine through areas that are not completely cut away, giving it a shadowed, 3 dimensional look.

Experiment with silhouettes first, that are strictly black and white. Once you have mastered those, you will be ready to try more complicated designs! Watch this space for some original carving patterns, as the season draws nearer!

Spider Sandwich Cookies

Easiest of all our recipes, these little arachnids will require the following ingredients:

Halloween sandwich cookies (We used Oreos with orange filling)
Small Candy Coated Chocolate Candies (We used mini M&M’s)
Licorice Whips, cut into 2-3″ pieces
A small amount of chocolate frosting

Just insert the licorice whip pieces into the cookie filling for legs. Using dots of frosting, “glue” the candy eyes to the top of the cookie. These make great last-minute additions to any Halloween occasion.

Hairy Scary Spider Cookies

Here’s another super easy recipe that makes cute and tasty spiders! All you need is:

12 oz bag of chocolate chips
6 oz bag of either butterscotch or peanut butter flavored chips
Bag of Chow Mein noodles
Red Hots, or Mini M&M’s

Line a cookie sheet with buttered waxed paper. In a microwave safe bowl, heat the chocolate and butterscotch or peanut butter flavored chips at 50% power for 1 minute. Stir, repeat until the chips are completely melted and smooth. Stir in the chow mein noodles. Drop by spoonsful on the waxed paper. Immediately add 2 red hots or M&M’s for eyes, while cookies are still warm. Refrigerate until firm.

Spider Topped Cookies

While these take the most time of all our spider cookie recipes, you will find that they will be the most popular. They are well worth your effort!

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup margarine
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar

Cream these four ingredients together until smooth and fluffy.

Mix in:

2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup milk

Sift together and add slowly:

3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Make small balls of dough about the size of a quarter. Roll the balls in granulated sugar and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees. Remove cookies to a cooling rack and immediately top each with a carmel filled chocolate candy like Rolo’s. Press this down slightly into the top of the cookie. In a few minutes, the candy will become soft. Add licorice whip legs and M&M eyes to the candy to complete your spider. See the picture for placement.

The pumpkin is a squash, a fruit, of the same family as cucumbers. They probably originated in Central America. Seeds from pumpkin like plants have been found in Mexico dating back to 5500 B.C. They were a staple of the Native American diet. When European explorers and settlers learned of the plant, they sent seeds back home. Today, pumpkins are cultivated all over the world.

Pumpkin is a rich source of Vitamin A and potassium. It has a high fiber content. Depending on how it is prepared, pumpkin can be a very healthy food source. Historically, pumpkin has been used medicinally as a cure for freckles and a treatment for snakebite. Today, the consumption of pumpkin seeds is known to promote prostate health for men.

Pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes, from “Baby Boo” miniature pumpkins that fit in the palm of your hand, to the giant, prize-winning varieties that can weigh upwards of 1500 lbs. They come in a rainbow of colors, from the common orange, to green, white and blue varieties. They can be smooth skinned, or extremely rough. Each variety suggests new and unique designs!

The basic components of a pumpkin are as follows:

The Stem: Located on top of the pumpkin, the stem is usually brownish green. It was the umbilical cord that connected the fruit to the vine, and brought in nutrients from the main body of the plant. When choosing a pumpkin, it is best to find one with the stem still firmly attached. Never lift your pumpkin by the stem, or it will break off. This will become the handle for the “lid” of your Jack O’Lantern.

The Shell: This includes both the skin, also called the rind, the shiny orange outer covering, and the pulp, also called the meat or the flesh, the part that is cooked and used in many wonderful recipes.

The Blossom End: When the pumpkin vine produces blossoms, each is a potential pumpkin. the scar where the blossom used to be attached is what we consider the bottom of he pumpkin.

The Guts, Brains, Goop: Actually, they are called the fibrous strands that fill the cavity in the middle of the pumpkin. These gooey strands contain the pumpkin seeds.

The Seeds: Pumpkin seeds can be planted to produce the next season’s crop of pumpkins. They are made up of the seed shell and the nut inside. There are many excellent recipes for snacks and foods made from pumpkin seeds. (See our recipe section!)

Watch for upcoming posts for choosing the design for your Jack O’Lantern and the proper pumpkin and tools to use for it.

Mary Shelley’s great work, Frankenstein has become the most famous monster tale of all time. It tells of the scientist, Victor Frankenstein, whose quest for glory prompts him to construct a creature from dead body parts, and then attempt to reanimate the tissue with a jolt of electricity, in the form of lightning. One of the reasons that her story seemed so plausible, and therefore, more frightening, was that such experiments were actually being carried out at that time, on a much smaller scale. Another acquaintance of Percy’s, Dr. Lind, was intrigued by making frog’s legs twitch and jerk by applying electricity. Their friend, Dr. Polidori, was conducting similar experiments on tissue reanimation. Was Mary’s story more than a tale of horror? Was it a warning, like the tale of Prometheus, against the arrogance of man, who was seeking god-like powers over life and death?

The story was first committed to film in 1910, by Edison Studios. To date, the tale of Dr. Frankenstein and his creature, has been told on film hundreds of times. Some have portrayed the creature as a mindless, raging beast, while others envisioned him as a gentle and misunderstood giant. In the 1930’s, the monster was most famously portrayed by Boris Karloff. It is his version of Frankenstein’s monster that has inspired many thousands of Halloween costumes for nearly 80 years.

Don’t assume that you know the whole story of Frankenstein. Although we have come to know the monster by his creator’s name, he was never actually given a name of his own. Victor, who was enraged that his experiment would not obey him, and lunged at him instead, called him “the creature”, “the fiend” or “that devil”. But, you can read Mary Shelley’s original story for yourself! You can find the complete text of “Frankenstein, or A Modern Prometheus” online at www.literature.org/authors/shelley-mary/frankenstein/ , and at www.gutenberg.org .

A list of objects or goals to be hunted is provided by the organizer. Hunters can work individually, or in teams. The goal is to accumulate as many items on the list as possible in a given period of time. Items may be hidden, or hunters may ask others, often strangers, neighbors, or friends, to help them acquire the items they seek. The hunting ground can be limited to a house or property, a mall, a neighborhood, or it can be unlimited, and bound only by the time restriction. The items may be collected, photographed or video taped, as directed by the organizer. The winning team or individual will be the one who has collected the most listed items by the end of the time limit. In the event of a tie, some judgement of the quality or value of the collected items may determine the winner.

Scavenger Hunts have become very popular Halloween entertainments. Sending guests out into the dark night to retrieve treasures lends itself to a spooky Halloween tale to start the evening. Make sure that your guests do not go out alone, and carry flashlights and/or reflective items. Depending on the age of your party guests, the hunt may be limited to the backyard or expanded to include the neighborhood. Be aware of any local curfews and inform your neighbors, in case they stumble upon one of your guests snapping a photo of their scary jack o’lantern, or creepy tree.

Here’s a idea for a Scavenger Hunt for kids. Purchase a posable plastic or cardboard skeleton, of nearly life size. Trace the skeleton on a large sheet of paper, and hang this outline up on the wall or door. Next, carefully take the skeleton apart at the joints. Hide the various parts around the house or back yard. Send your hunters out to unearth the body parts, and let them tape the pieces they have found onto the outline until the skeleton is reformed. Award a prize to the team that finds the most skeleton parts!

For adults and children over the age of 10, I would recommend some classics:

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving. Still vibrant and scary, this short story was written by Irving in 1820, and survives as one of the earliest examples of truly American fiction. The story tells of a superstitious young school master, Ichabod Crane, whose courtship of the young Katrina Van Tassel, sets off a competition with the town bully. The hapless Crane also runs afoul of the local ghost of a headless Hessian soldier, with a penchant for midnight rides. If you haven’t read this story since you were required to for school, it’s time to pull it down from the shelf and read it again!

“The Halloween Tree” by Ray Bradbury. One of the undisputed deans of American science fiction and fantasy, Mr. Bradbury has given us some of the creepiest and most readable stories for the season. In this book, we meet 8 young boys who are all meeting to go trick or treating together. On the way to their meeting place, young Pip is whisked away by a great, dark Something. The boys meet the mysterious Mr. Moundshroud, who takes them on a journey through time and space to save their friend. From a funeral procession in ancient Egypt, Druidic rites, witch trials in Medieval Europe, and the catacombs of Mexico on the Day of the Dead, the boys learn about the origins of Halloween and how attitudes about death have been influenced it, while trying to save their friend.

“Something Wicked This Way Comes”, also by Ray Bradbury. This novel introduces us to two 13 year-old boys in a small midwestern town, who are conflicted about their upcoming 14th birthdays. On October 23, various townspeople tell the boys that they can feel that something is about to happen. The boys are delighted to learn that a carnival has set up just outside of town and are determined to be among the first to attend. The carnival, a sinister group, led by Mr. Dark, promises that a visit to Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show can make all one’s deepest desires come true. And wishes do come true, but always at a heavy price. In the case of this story, I will also heartily recommend the movie, for which I have linked the trailer here. It has brilliant performances by Jonathon Pryce and Jason Robards, and character actor, Royal Dano, and stays true to the feeling of the novel.

Just for fun, you may want to add the book “Halloween”, by Jerry Seinfeld. This picture book is based on Jerry’s own holiday experiences as a child. From pajama costumes to the quality of treats, he makes us smile remembering our own youth. This is a perfect book to share with younger children, aged 4 and up.

In 1870, Willard Carpenter dreamed of seeing a library built in his hometown of Evansville, Indiana. He purchased the land and financed the construction of a Victorian Gothic style building to house it. In 1883, Willard died after suffering a paralyzing stroke, before seeing the library completed. He left most of his wealth and property to the Library Board for the ongoing project. In March of 1885, The Willard Library opened its doors to the public.

In 1937, the night janitor trudged to the library at 3 AM to stoke the coal furnace. Upon entering the basement, he was startled to see what he described as an “all grey lady”, dressed all in grey, from face veil to shoes. He was so shocked that he dropped his flashlight as the apparition faded before his eyes. The night janitor resigned his position shortly thereafter.

The Willard Library’s Grey Lady roams the building in silence. Some say she is the ghost of Louise Carpenter, Willard’s daughter, who was snubbed by her father in his will. Others say not, because there is nothing malevolent about this apparition, as they assume Louise would be. The current library employees consider the Grey Lady as a member of the staff, and know that, every so often, they will see her. And they do see her…often! Hundreds, perhaps thousands of incidences of ghostly activity have been reported. She has been seen among the bookshelves, perusing titles. She moves books and lights, rearranges furniture, turns on water faucets, leaves strange objects. Her presence is sometimes announced by the strong scent of an old-fashioned, musky perfume. Who is she? No one knows for sure, but she may not be the only spirit connected with the library.

So, are you ready to see for yourself? The Willard library provides live “ghost cams” positioned in rooms of the building where the apparitions are frequently spotted. They are available online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you do spot something you think is unusual, just click the screen to save it and submit it to the library for their gallery. They are always looking for new ghost watchers, so pay them a visit at www.WillardGhost.com or www.LibraryGhost.com and check out the cams and image galleries. In October, the library hosts “ghost hunts” on the property, so if you are in the area, visit them. Then, let us know if you are one of the 48% of Americans who believe!