Halloween Night Spectacle

I know you’re anxious to hear about my Halloween so let’s get on with all the juicy details and then you can see the spectacular display that my award winning pumpkin put on.

First off, I work for a company that thinks Halloween is a great holiday. In fact, they reward you for wearing costumes and getting into the spirit of things by letting you go home early. Everyone who got dressed up went into the back parking lot and had their picture taken. It was by department and then by grouping of costumes such as Angels and Devils, Villains and Heroes, Thugs and Badasses. Just the comic relief of that alone was worth getting into a costume. My costume was very simplistic – a chef; a chef who served up flaming pumpkin pie, but a chef none-the-less. It was simple and straightforward, but I needed something I could wear and still take pictures with as well as light pumpkins on fire. I was stylish yet fully functional.

There was also a pumpkin carving contest. Clearly this had my name all over it. My offering was a 30lbs behemoth with 4 different faces carved into it – Jason, Scream, Michael Meyers and the Reaching Hands. Yeah I know I should have carved Freddie, but there simply wasn’t room.

In a surprising turn of events, I won the contest. A big thank you to Zombiepumpkins.com for the templates I used to take home the prize. So I get bragging rights for winning the first pumpkin carving contest the company held.

After getting out of work early (2:30pm) I got my son and we carved some more pumpkins for the night’s festivities. You can’t really have a Halloween without carving a pumpkin on the day now can you? We hacked and slashed our way through two more carvings and prepared for the little treaters.

The night was going to get hot as I planned on setting my winning pumpkin ablaze with a new idea of using a paper towel roll. There was also the added excitement of fireworks. The big crackers are legal in this state and we had several on hand to raise the dead and test the structural integrity of the pumpkin walls.

We did manage to light up the night with my pumpkin and it was a stunning display. The flame was massive with flames shooting out the side. I actually did this one for a crowd of friends and it left them speechless and looking for cover.

We only managed to get a few of the fireworks off before some lameass called the cops who told us we needed to knock it off. It was 11pm on Halloween! Who the hell calls the cops? Needless to say we were extremely disappointed. We had well over $150 worth of gunpowder at the ready and now we were being told to stop. Strangely the officer said nothing about the cauldron of fire in the middle of the backyard so I guess it’s all good.

It’s been one heck of a month. I’ve lost count of the number of pumpkins I’ve carved so far. It’s probably pretty close to 20, but I will need to count to find out. I have pictures of all of them so I can go back and see what I’ve done.

So anyway, enjoy the photos and let me know what you think. I already have new ideas for next year. It’s my goal to combine pumpkin burning with the chemistry of fireworks. We’ll see what I can put together before next year.

If you want to see larger versions of the photos which can be used for desktop wallpaper and the like, you check out my Halloween gallery at Webshots.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Halloween Death Toll – The Big Finale
• The Halloween Pumpkin Tally for 2010
• Tallahassee – A tribute to Zombieland
• The hours are ticking away until Halloween
• Another victory in the company pumpkin carving contest
• My Halloween Pumpkin Carvings
• Unholy Pumpkin Trinity
• This is your pumpkin, ON FIRE!!
• Flaming Pumpkin Trio – A Halloween WordPress theme
• Flaming Pumpkins WordPress Halloween Theme