It's the Great Pumpkin, Matt Williams

With Halloween quickly approaching, it became time to sit down with the kids and begin to carve their pumpkins into Jack O'Lanterns. This was always an enjoyable time of year for me and allowed me to allow my creative forces to come out. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to partake in a lot of different pumpkin carving experiences. Whether it was carving faces with a hunting knife during a deer hunt in central Idaho or using a diving knife and carving pumpkins while scuba diving off the coast of California (note, pumpkins are VERY buoyant and are a pain to actually get under water although there is nothing more eery than a glowing Jack O'Lantern under 80 feet of water.) This year, seemed quit pale by comparison. I didn't have to bring my own oxygen and the knives were much smaller. I sat in the garage and began to cut the top of the pumpkins to scoop out the guts. Of course none of the girls wanted anything to do with the slimy mess that was inside the pumpkin. They would be more than happy to help once they were cleaned out. So much like a fisherman after a big catch, I sat there with goo up to my elbows. Dakota thought this was the coolest part, especially when we made the guts make sloop sounds on the newspaper. With each handful, we would sit there and laugh. When we finally got all done, Trina came out and informed me that I needed to save the seeds so that she could roast them. I spent another hour separating seeds and placing them in a bowl. This would have been a pain except that when we were finished, came the fun part, the actual carving. As I sat there pondering what type of face to carve on this round pumpkin, my mind began to wander to longer days when the boys of summer were still playing and I was spending my time at the ballpark. I could almost smell the hot dogs and popcorn and hear the cheering of the crowd as the Diamondbacks came up to bat. Before long, I was returned back to reality by the sounds of Trina's voice. "What in the world were you thinking when you started to carve that pumpkin?" Huh? With that I looked down to find that I had carved what looked like Matt Williams face in the side of the pumpkin. It seemed only fitting though since the pumpkin and Matt have the same amount of hair growing on it.