Searching for the Great Pumpkin

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]
I know it’s a bad week to admit I hate Halloween. But I do: I’m too shy for dressing up, too easily spooked by ghouls and goblins. Even the candy part I can do without. All that said, I *love* this time of year…it’s the season of Orange!
Pumpkins! Sweet potatoes! Chrysanthemums! Persimmons! (I just ate my first one, yum!) Falling orange leaves! And did I mention pumpkins?!
Orange has been “my” color as long as anyone who knows me can remember. Family photos going back to my third birthday feature an annual cake finished in orange icing. My bedroom walls were bright orange; I even had an orange-haired doll. I still gravitate to the color as a grown-up, whether in my favorite Patagonia fleece or the aforementioned mums. And nothing cheers me like seeing pumpkins on front porches, especially when they’re left uncarved.
Because I’ve seen so many, I’ve been a little slow to discover the black truth about this orange season…

Paula as a pumpkin

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Grace Notes

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

I’m tickled to join MaryJane’s roster of scribblers expanding the notion that farmgirl isn’t a just place on the map, but a place of the heart.

True confessions (as the title of this blog makes clear): I was born suburban and raised suburban. I detoured briefly to New York City (I’m a writer after all) but now I’m raising my kids suburban, too.

Despite all the cul de sacs, WalMarts, and store-bought tomatoes, something a little bit country has always two-stepped inside me.

Bonanza: Ponderosa Party Time

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