City life robs us from so many lost experiences. Even the simple delight in finding the perfect pumpkin to become our jack-o-lantern is reduced to little more than a sterile trip to the grocery store. In a world of steel and abundant concrete a pumpkin patch is hardly something easily found, and few of us will travel whatever distance necessary to walk the field in search of the perfect jack.
But what if we did?
There's a field in northern Wisconsin off highway 2 near Lake Superior. Those who live in nearby Ashland say this paricular field is notorious for producing the perfect pumpkins, not only in size and shape, but in perfect abundance, enough for everyone.
I've driven past this field personally and have never stopped to look or even buy a pumpkin there, but I can say that it truly is a rather large field, and during harvest time the field is all but orange for the hundreds of pumpkins growing there. And yes, they are quite large from what I've seen. But what makes them so perfect, I cannot say, but I know what I've heard.
It is said that for several nights following Halloween, each night after dark many bring their carved and blackened jacks back to the field where they were born. They lay them upon the soil where they are said to wither back into the earth, making the soil nutrient-rich for the next growing season. Within the womb of the earth enriched by generations of pumpkins past, the new grow and rise from the earth back into the light again, and each year the harvest is better than the last.
But there are whisperings. Some believe that the soil is becoming bitter, that the pumpkins growing there now are changing in appearance, becoming twisted, irregular. What is happening to the soil there? Have the jacks abandoned there in the past to decay spoiled the soil irrepairably?
But what if we did?
There's a field in northern Wisconsin off highway 2 near Lake Superior. Those who live in nearby Ashland say this paricular field is notorious for producing the perfect pumpkins, not only in size and shape, but in perfect abundance, enough for everyone.
I've driven past this field personally and have never stopped to look or even buy a pumpkin there, but I can say that it truly is a rather large field, and during harvest time the field is all but orange for the hundreds of pumpkins growing there. And yes, they are quite large from what I've seen. But what makes them so perfect, I cannot say, but I know what I've heard.
It is said that for several nights following Halloween, each night after dark many bring their carved and blackened jacks back to the field where they were born. They lay them upon the soil where they are said to wither back into the earth, making the soil nutrient-rich for the next growing season. Within the womb of the earth enriched by generations of pumpkins past, the new grow and rise from the earth back into the light again, and each year the harvest is better than the last.
But there are whisperings. Some believe that the soil is becoming bitter, that the pumpkins growing there now are changing in appearance, becoming twisted, irregular. What is happening to the soil there? Have the jacks abandoned there in the past to decay spoiled the soil irrepairably?
What horrors will future harvests bring? Will nearby townspeople keep returning year after year to lay their jack upon the soil? Will they recognize when it's gone too far? Is this urban legend or truth? I no longer live there and will most likely never know.
And where shall we lay them to wither into the earth?
And where shall we lay them to wither into the earth?
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