As the cooler days of September arrive, the stores start displaying their Halloween merchandise. Most years I could ignore these displays in September. But the year that my son was deployed, I realized that my 6-year-old and 8-year-old grandsons would probably miss helping their father carve special jack-o-lanterns for them.
Since you never know how long it will take to get a package delivered to someone who is deployed, I decided I had to act fast and send a pumpkin over to my son so he could carve it and send it back home before Halloween.
I will admit that I was a little dismayed when one of my friends asked if it wouldn’t rot while being sent overseas. I am not a complete idiot. I knew it would have to be one of those man-made pumpkins sold in a craft store.
The postal service charges based on the size of the package, so this endeavor was not going to be a cheap — and a small pumpkin from a craft store was not going to be carved with the same creativity as the usual pumpkin.
At first, I think my son was skeptical of the plan. Then he realized that he really didn’t want to miss out on this family tradition. My grandsons were so pleased when they got a box from the Middle East with a “carved” pumpkin for their Halloween celebration.
My plan didn’t work perfectly, though. I was hoping it would help take carving a jack-o-lantern off my daughter-in-law’s busy “to do” list. However, there is something about little boys putting their hands into a real pumpkin and helping to get out all those seeds that can’t be replicated.
