Snappy's First Jack-O-Lantern

I sent him on Sunday to the farmer’s market to pick out ten Grammy Smith apples for my apple pie.

He came home with a pumpkin.

"I think the kids will have fun with this tonight."

He forgot the boys are twenty-two and twenty-five. They no longer enjoy making the Halloween Jack-O-Lantern.

We put it on the porch.

We put the dog outside.


An hour later, he’s hollering. "She’s eating the pumpkin! She’s eating the pumpkin!"
Snappy had taken the four and a half pound pumpkin off the porch, rolled it over the hill and chewed a nasty hole in it.

I always try to make lemonade...

"Look," I said, "it’s an unusual design, where she clawed and chewed. It looks like a witch on a broomstick. See? See the little bat?"

He was still pissed.

The kids came over and after dinner, Jennifer and I sat at the picnic table and examined the pumpkin. She, being a Psychology Major (working toward her Masters Degree), told me after I’d explained the vision on the pumpkin, that she would never want to give me the Rorschach test. But she was excited all the same about doing the Jack-O-Lantern.

I do so love the girl.

"Look. I’m trying to save the dog. You love Snappy don’t you?"

"When she’s not eating my shoes. Get me a knife."

Sawing and drawing, she came up with a perfect witch on a broom stick that exactly matched the outlines left by Snappy’s grubby little claws and teeth.

It’s going to be a fun year this year for Halloween.

It’s Snappy’s first Jack-O-Lantern.

Now, if she doesn’t bite any trick-or-treaters, life will be good.

I mean Snappy, not Jennifer.