It is definitely Fall. so instead of the “British are coming” we cry “the Pumpkins are here.” I mean really here. There is a huge pile of pumpkins as you walk into Walmart. They are about the Jack-o-lantern size, approximately twelve inches in diameter or slightly smaller. More about that later.
It is an interesting thing to know that there are many Guinness record types of contests for who can grow the largest pumpkin. By large I mean really large. The current world’s record is something like 2,323 pounds from a pumpkin grown in Switzerland. The current USA record is a mere 2,058 pound monster grown in California. Hey, I even watched a TV movie that was obviously old because the folks that grew that champion pumpkin only grew one something like 1,800 pounds. This is not just for fun; contests pay something like $7 a pound for the champ. You do the math – that’s big money. I would also make a huge Jack-o- lantern except the big ones are not round..
The history of pumpkins starts back around 6000 BC. Probably before my great-grandad grew pumpkins. It was in that Central America/ Mexico string of land linking North and South America. Naturally it moved north to the American Indians and spread. It was then, and still is, an important seasonal food. Even in this day and age Texas is the fourth biggest grower of commercial pumpkins in the United States. Who would have thought?
Another popular pumpkin thing is that pumpkin spice latte. It is a peculiarly big deal for fancy drink lovers. Personally, I like Chai Tea Latte. But that pumpkin stuff is popular all over. I guess it is more popular with the ladies because there is a big article in a college newspaper that says if you joke about PSL you are sexist. That seems a little extreme to me, but when I find myself shouting at the TV when my football team makes a boo-boo, I wonder who is listening. My wife leaves the room. Does that make her sexist or sensible?
Jack-o-lanterns came to us from Ireland by way of turnips. It started a long time ago. This was before they knew about pumpkins. In those days the Irish had turnips. They hollowed them out and put a little flame inside to use them as lanterns. The story goes that there was this mean man named Jack who made a deal with the Devil, by trickery, to never be in hell and when he died he wasn’t allowed in heaven because he was so mean. With a little begging he got an ember from the devil and carved out his turnip and put in the ember. He wanders to this day using Jack’s Lantern.
When the Irish immigrated to the USA and found out about pumpkins, they immediate saw that they were easier to hollow out and put in a candle. So the pumpkin Jack-o-lantern was born. Naturally, it is used mostly on Halloween.
