Jack-O'-Lanterns!!

Do you know how Jack-O'-Lanterns came about?  Irish myth has it that a guy named Stingy Jack sat down with the devil one day to have a drink, but didn't want to pay for it.  The devil turned himself into a coin to pay, but Jack slipped the coin into his pocket instead, next to a silver cross, so the devil couldn't change back.  Eventually, for a promise of leaving him alone for one year and not taking his soul, Stingy Jack let him go.

Now the devil wasn't very smart, because Jack immediately convinced him to climb a tree for some fruit, whereupon he marked the sign of the cross on the tree.  Now the devil was stuck up the tree forever.  For another promise of leaving Jack alone for TEN years and not taking his soul, Jack got rid of the cross.  Then Jack died!!!

Don't you just love these stories?????  So God wouldn't let a nasty guy like Jack into Heaven and the devil COULDN'T take his soul, so he gave Jack's soul a piece of coal, which he placed in a carved out turnip, and Jack was destined to roam the countryside forever ... Jack of the Lantern ... later, Jack O' Lantern.  The Irish and Scottish make their "lanterns" out of potatoes and turnips to frighten Stingy Jack and other spirits away ... the English ... pumpkins!!  I had no idea ... but you can find ANYTHING on the internet!!!

Since I had to borrow my poor skinny friend's head for another project, I scouted out a new one for him today.  I almost missed out ... as you can imagine, it's "Christmas" everything!!!  Halloween was just a small section with lots of 70% off signs.  This guy is lucky I found him a new head!!!  Once decorated and installed, he's much happier and ready to face the munchkins!!

And it's PUMPKIN CARVING TIME!!!  I don't want Stingy Jack at MY door!!!  A new pumpkin patch has appeared about a mile from me where I procured two rather large creatures for big bucks!!!  My, they are proud of their big pumpkins!! Maybe I should have gone to the grocery store instead.  At around 45 pounds, I struggled to carry him from the truck to the kitchen counter where he started to take shape.

He's not exactly happy since he can't see, but the next trip to the store will hopefully result in a nice pair of black cat eyes!!

My sunglasses give him a little perspective!!  One down, two to go!!

On another note, for my Golden Spike friends and FMCA folks, we're all set with 400 pairs of rubber gloves, 75 trash bags and 6,000 napkins for the ice cream social and clean-up duties!!!  I think that ought to do it!!!!  Now if I can just get the ice cream there!!!!!