Shortly after starting Further Up & Further In just over a year ago, I wrote about my experience with Halloween growing up. It’s a piece I find myself revisiting this year as well, in particular the part about our annual visits to a pumpkin patch just an hour north of my childhood home in St. Charles, Illinois.
The Lindberg Pumpkin Patch was the best around. It had everything from haunted houses, burlap sack slides, pumpkin tosses, and corn mazes to petting zoos, a big red barn, and delicious eats. Whatever expectations you had for a family-oriented pumpkin patch, this one met them all. Every year it was a joy to climb into my Mom’s van, travel off to the patch, and (more than likely) pick up the new Halloween-themed Frank Fiorello book on our way out.
As a kid, the corn maze was particularly challenging. Not only was the maze itself difficult, but the “monsters” that stalked you throughout your journey made things all the spookier. There’s something magical about a pumpkin patch this time of year, something that you understand as a child and again later as a parent but forget in the years in between.
C.S. Lewis once wrote to his goddaughter Lucy (yes, that Lucy) that though she had grown up and gotten “too old” for fairy tales, one day she would be old enough to start reading them again. While part of growing up is about putting childish things aside, there comes a time in every parent’s journey when you begin to experience the same joy your children do as if you were their age again.
While Lewis was clearly talking about certain kinds of stories (and in particular The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), I think his point rings true concerning a plethora of different experiences we have first as children and later as adults.
When Hannah and I were newly married, we took a day trip from our home in Bozeman to a small Montana ghost town called Bannack. It was a location that many of the students in Montana State’s School of Film & Photography had visited for photo assignments and a place I wanted to check out before our big move to Los Angeles in the coming months.
But on the way there, we got sidetracked and stopped just outside of Dillon when we saw an enormous hay bale maze in the field that stood before the vast mountain range behind them. Here’s a picture.
We decided to stop and explore the maze ourselves. It was the early afternoon and the attraction–called the Beaverhead Maze & Pumpkin Patch–hadn’t quite opened yet, but they let us through anyway. We wandered through the maze for quite some time and eventually came to an unfinished portion that would no doubt be completed by dark. It was a lot of fun, and we got our money’s worth, but we could only have so much fun at this place that was clearly meant for children without one of our own.
Fast forward a few years…
This past weekend, we took the Little Miss–dressed in her adorable “hello, pumpkin” shirt–to a makeshift patch at the Spring Valley Family Tree Farm out here in Latah County, Idaho. We’d been meaning to check one out for a few weeks, and with October nearly over, we were running out of nice weekends. It was the prettiest day, and though it had started off quite cool, it soon proved to be the perfect afternoon for us to make the trek eastward for a few hours.
If I’m being honest, I hadn’t expected much out of the afternoon. Other than some pumpkin-themed photos and being pulled through the fields by a tractor, I figured we’d be there for an hour or two, wear the Little Miss out, and head back home in time for supper first and bed soon after. But, as Mr. Lewis implied, there are some things from your childhood that come back to you years later. Though he likely meant even further on down the liferoad we all walk, I’m thankful to be experiencing these childlike wonders again now.
Watching our daughter at the patch was magical. She explored the field full of pumpkins and soon-to-be Christmas trees (turns out, Spring Vally is actually a Christmas tree farm first and foremost), forced her hand into as many goat’s faces as she could manage, helped her mother devour a pumpkin bar, and watched excitedly as the tractor pulled us along. One thing we learned is that no matter how high a straw maze stacks (and this one was not very high at all), it doesn’t make it easier to find your way out.
Needless to say, the Little Miss was enamored, and her excitement was contagious.
To say that our daughter had fun at the pumpkin patch is to say that the sky is blue. She had a ball, and though she was a little antsy at certain points (as every one-year-old is), we were there for a number of hours without any real complaints. In fact, we were just as excited to be there as she was, maybe even more so as we had the chance to watch her experience it all for the very first time.
I think this is how God intended us to live. To experience childhood, mature, learn to take care of ourselves and others, and then get to experience the other side of it once again. I’m not one to say that children are innocent per se (and anyone with a small child knows how purposely naughty they can be), but if there is one innocent thing we could experience or learn from our children it’s the child-like wonder they have for the world. That, and the immeasurable trust they put in their parents.
The Beast of Bear-tooth Mountain Update
Some exciting news for those who have been patiently waiting for The Beast of Bear-tooth Mountain: the Kindle Pre-Order is live on Amazon! Reserve your copy to be delivered directly to your Kindle (or Amazon account) instantly upon release. For those still awaiting the paperback, don’t worry, it’ll be here before you know it!
I mentioned before that the book (both the digital and physical copies) will be released THIS Wednesday, October 25th, just a few days before Halloween. On Wednesday, the paperback should be available for purchase on the Amazon store.
If you wish to receive immediate updates on future releases in The Bear-tooth Mountain Archive (I may have something new for you all as early as Christmas!), visit my Amazon Author page and click “Follow.” New releases and pre-orders will immediately appear in your email inbox as soon as they become available.
This Week’s Petty Picks
Pumpkinheads is a graphic novel by Rainbow Rowell with art by Faith Erin Hicks that just felt right to share with you all given the context of this edition. Yes, it’s a rom-com of sorts, but it’s set at a pumpkin patch on the last night of operation, which is an inspired place to set a story such as this.
There are a few little things I could do without in this one, but overall the story of Josiah and Deja is a lot of fun. Hannah and I read it years ago, and we revisited it again in preparation for visiting the local patch with our daughter.
Infernal Fall is a dark fantasy novel by Bryan Timothy Mitchell (find it on Amazon here) that doubles as a modern-day take on Dante’s Inferno. It’s an excellent depiction of Hell, the underworld, and the wages of sin, all with an incredibly hopeful finish. The audiobook is particularly good.
Mitchell recently finished his sequel novel Almost Paradise (which I’ll likely highlight in a later post) which finishes the story with just as much excitement. But definitely start with Infernal Fall. It’s a great book with well-rounded characters and loads of mystery to go around.
While I do love the original Bram Stroker novel, this Dracula is the iconic 1931 Universal Picture that redefined the character for generations to come. Starring Bela Lugosi as the classic vampire, this flick is the perfect horror to revisit this Halloween.
In fact, Hannah and I will be watching many of the original monster movies this week (some of which for the first time), and I’m excited to dive back into Dracula now having read the entire novel. From what I remember, it’s vastly different, but that’s part of the fun.