Culture No. 29: Fall Decorating

In the NEPA spirit of over-the-top decorating, I went out yesterday and bought not one, but THREE pumpkins for our front porch. (I also took down the baskets of impatiens that have been dead for about a month ago now. Whoops. I always miss that unofficial day when it's okay to switch over to mums. Like when I secretly listen to Christmas music in July, I live in fear that I'll switch flowers too early and be summarily ostracized and excommunicated for lack of proper seasonal observance. So I just didn't buy any this year. C'est la vie. I digress.)

Bert and I tried to get pumpkins at a local super-farm (aka corn mazes, hay rides, cider donuts, the whole shebang) this weekend, but as soon as we pulled into the overflow parking lot and I saw the line to get on the school bus to take you to the farm that was still miles away, I was overcome by a sudden fit of stroller-induced claustrophobia and decreed that I did not want a pumpkin that bad. So we ended up doing a little leaf-peeping and drinking pumpkin spice lattes at Dunk's instead. An acceptable substitute, methinks.

These pumpkins came from the 'flower tent' that springs up seasonally in an abandoned lot across the street from the grocery store. (Mid-summer, it is the 'fireworks tent.' ;) I went there after my dentist appointment, and even though I had this weird novocaine-induced Elvis thing going on with the left side of my face, the guys there were still really nice and even helped me carry the pumpkins to the car. But when I got home, I realized we had four front steps instead of three (Who's observant? This girl!) and now I feel one pumpkin short of a whole patch. (Seems like that's been the story a lot lately...)

This is how it starts. It's one little white pumpkin now, and before you know it, we'll be like that crazy house on Route 11 that has no less than six blow-up monstrosities in the front yard. Even now, it's all I can do to keep myself from buying corn stalks for our porch columns. Oy vey. This time of year does funny things to people...