Funny, the knack that kid has for making me feel guilty! Yes, it was true! I had thoroughly scrubbed, baked, and pureed the grimacing remains of the kids' Halloween pumpkins. No matter how appealing Jack O’ Lanterns look adorning the porch before October 31, one minute after Halloween, their orange faces leer an open dare for cruising teenagers to splatter them in the street.
But letting those hollowed-out orbs rot and molder in the garbage really goes against my waste-not-want-not mentality.
So with Thanksgiving coming, I did what any thrifty mom would do--salvaged what I could, the house taking on the cozy incense of ginger mingled with cloves and cinnamon.
Stirring a huge kettle of pumpkin pie filling, I turned to my usually famished children for approval. No way! From the disgusted looks they gave me, you’d have thought I’d killed their cat and made him into stew.
I couldn't even appease them with a promised piece of pie.
”No thanks,” my round-eyed son replied, his face so stony pale that each freckle stood out in bas-relief. “I wouldn't want to do that to a friend.”
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| This little grandson seems to share his uncle's sentiments of so long ago. |
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| Mike and his little brother Matt. |
