Jan Goldyn, Author

Newspaper covered our sun-porch floor. Little orange lids with green stems were scattered about with piles of mushy pumpkin insides and seeds that would be toasted later with some yummy oil and salt spreading a nutty, earthy smell throughout the house.

On an evening in October, My five brothers and sisters and I had set about making our glorious Halloween masterpieces!

After the tedious job of spooning out the insides, we started the creative task of bringing about our particular pumpkin's spooky, happy, silly or just plain amazing face.

I usually went for the classic triangle eyes and nose with a jagged happy smile. Our oldest sister helped me and my younger brother work the knife. My oldest brother insisted on drawing his design on paper first, making the scariest image he could conjure. The artistic sisters added eyebrows, comical mouths and excited expressions.

Now it was time for the magic.

We lined our jack-o-lanterns along the front porch ledge and each lit a small candle. We then tilted our candles over our open jack-o-lanterns, letting the melting wax form a small circle at the bottom into which we pushed our candles to form a base. The lids were placed atop our creations and voila!

Standing back near the road, we each paused quietly for a moment, entranced in the flickering enchantment of each little sprite, pixy or goblin. The crisp evening air brought to my mind the thought of putting on a homemade costume in just a few days' time, collecting candy at the neighbors' doors, the bag of popcorn we would receive from Mrs. Yoder, the falling leaves swirling in the night-time wind.

But most of all, it brought an excited anticipation of the fascinating spell that would come over our little neighborhood as we trick-or-treated through its streets and back yards -- oblivious to the charms that would forever be held in our Halloween memories ♥