Seven-year-old James Meikle puts the finishing touches on his pumpkin’s cat face.
Two-year-old Cody O’Connell and seven-year-old James Meikle sit at the two Halloween carving tables at Cherrydale Farmer’s Market creating their pumpkins on Saturday morning.
Cody, with major assistance from his father Chris Jones, has made two round “tire” holes in his orange “auto” pumpkin. “That may be as far as we get,” his father offers. His grandfather Mike Jones has come from Maryland to offer support for the effort. Meanwhile James has nearly finished drawing a cat face on his large pumpkin. He says it has taken him about 40 minutes so far, and he is nearly finished. James has a cat at home that is brown and black and tan and gray.
Stephen Cunningham, manager of the Cherrydale Farmers Market since it was opened at Dorothy Hamm Middle School four years ago, says this is the first year for the Jack O’Loosa. “Three weeks ago Julie Fiddick, who is a member of the Cherrydale Farmers Market Committee and helps me at the market, said ‘Why don’t we do a pumpkin carving next week?’” Cunningham said he thought it was a good idea for kids to have a good place to do it rather than in the kitchen at home. The idea was that the kids could bring their own pumpkin or buy one at the market, and the market would provide the supplies to decorate the pumpkins.
So Cunningham and Fiddick quickly made a plan and scurried around getting the tools, the markers and the goop scoopers to take the seeds out. Cunningham says, “I got those serrated cutters with no blade like my mom used to get when I was a kid. They mostly just gnaw through the pumpkin. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.” Then he got a sharper cutter (but not that sharp) for the parents to use with the older kids.
The tables are cluttered with five-step instruction cards, a spray bottle to clean off the pumpkins as well as an array of tools and decorating supplies. An unexpected wind scatters the supplies around the market sending several helpers in all directions to chase them down.
Fiddick said a whole group of kids had just left. “They come and go in waves like voters at the polls,” she observed. The soccer field just down the hill from the school is filled with players in the middle of their games so another wave is likely in a few minutes.