Show CSfff available Section co?v Sunday October 19 £003 The Herald Journal '' 'z ' i Vs V Pagel i Kids make choices at Canon Liberty couldn't even lift it but that didn’t from him stop trying to find the perfect pumpkin “I like kinda big and kinda small ones” Liberty said Carson along with his mother his auiit and two cousins had virtually the whole patch to themselves on an autumn day What would fall be after all without a pumpkin on the front porch? “It’s fun to come out and let the kids choose and you can pick from thousands” mom Kris Liberty said " hard to miss die swath of ‘die hillside along orange dotting the highway and even harder for people to resist die chance to pick their own “I love it This is awesome” Kri raid “We just saw tons of orange ftoin the road” And it sure beats going to the'"? supermarket :£&' v Instead of a couple hundred to choose from the intrepid hunters had dieir pick of a few thousand at a patch near Preston: And pick they did They hunt-'?- ? ed high and low rolling the prospective candidates to a central location so as not to lose track of their wouutbe picks fH Just when they thought they had settled on the right one someone else would spy another likely candidate “I want a big one” called cousin Shari Bair 5 Older sister Stacy Bair 9 has her own idea of what constitutes the per'K-fect pumpkin ?' “I like tall ones and round ones” Bair said v can te serious biiri Ejckfogthc right one to carvcmfo ness for the young at heart The scarier the better “I want mine to be very scary” Carson said The old Celtic tradition of carving gourds and lighting them internally dates back over 3000 years According to legend a glowing ' placed on the porch or in a window was used to welcome back the dead and ward off evil spirits Early European settlers in America found the orange gourds ideal for Vys ' carving into “I picked a good one It’s nice and round” added Jaron Pitcher another pumpkin hunter “I’m going to put a mad face on it” But don’t expect any of these kids to do the gooey job of scraping the ive-year-- - 'VC ' I v & 'll- ? k ' v' 'Y V ‘V ’? J : V : r aJack-o-Jante- tn : Jack-o-lante- ra ' ‘ Jack-o-Iante- five-year-o- ld insides out “Ewww” said Shari Baird “That’s dad’s job” mom Janet Bair said “I never carve pumpkins I make the cookies They carve the pumpkins” Story by Mark Randall Photos by Brent Stevens Top: Jordan Pitcher contemplates a pumpkin Inset: McKenzie Bodity has her hands full Middle: Stacy Bair surveys the many choices of pumkins Left: Shari Bair attemps to lift a pumpkin Bottom: Carson Liberty consoles a small pumpkin v £ li 'll: v ' r |