Pumpkin

 

It's almost October conjuring up childhood memories of my mother, my brother and me going to a nearby farm for the serious reason to choose our pumpkin for a jack o'lantern.

It would always be at least sweater-wearing cool and there were already red leaves. 

Piles of fallen red and yellow leaves were made for kicking. My father would rake even bigger piles and not complain too much when we jumped in them. He would rerake them before burning, which has since been banned.

We planned our Halloween costumes (one year my grandmother was unhappy when we cut holes in her hand embroidered pillowcases to turn us into ghosts). 

She would bake cookies shaped like witches and pumpkins, and we'd make up trick or treat packages in orange napkins tied with black ribbons. That was before the fear of razor blades and poison in candy made parents check each item given to the trick or treaters.

When I moved to Switzerland in 1990 there was no Halloween traditions. At one job, a Swiss man asked me what it was all about. 

Over the years in October a few pumpkins would be offered. Some children might trick-or -treat...at least in multi-national Geneva, but not many.

Another year, my nine-year old Indian neighbor girl and I searched and found a pumpkin to carve. She decided on a double face -- happy and sad. 

When we are in Southern France, I miss the smell of autumn. It exists in Switzerland, and even if red leaves are scarce, there are lots of yellow leaves. When we do see a red tree, we stop to admire it.

The photo at the top of the page of the Lexington, Massachusetts farm posted on Facebook by a neighbor and classmate back childhood memories and memories of an autumn when my husband and I were visiting his Mom in upstate New York. This place also had fresh pressed apple cider and donuts still warm and crusty from their oven.

I did notice in the marché that there were colored gourds and pumpkins slightly bigger than an acorn squash on streroids. Perhaps next week I'l buy one, do a mini jack o'latern and put a very tea candle inside. I might even toast the seeds for a snack as we watch Netflix making different memories.