As a child, I was never allowed to help carve the pumpkins for Halloween. In my childhood and teen years, pumpkins were carved with actual knives from the kitchen, and parents don’t really want to spend their time in the emergency room trying to repair damage when their children cut themselves. All our pumpkins were the same year after year, with the lame triangle eyes and bubba teeth.

When I was 26, we were visiting our friends in Malibu, and I bought one of those pumpkin carving kits with the little saws and patterns and made our friend Bob a pumpkin with a bat on it since he was obsessed with bats. I became obsessed with carving pumpkins and enjoyed carving several pumpkins year after year. Here is the full catalog lol.