The Great Pumpkin - by Jack Hanneman

Last weekend my wife and I enjoyed a tradition that we started when our 2 girls were first born. We had made our annual pilgrimage to Uncle John’s Cider Mill in St Johns, as we have for over 21 years. It’s a wonderful experience for the entire family. We started at the pumpkin patch, covering the entire 40 acres to ensure we had found nothing less than the perfect pumpkins. Thank God we found the last four.

As the girls walked together, eagerly searching, I was taken back to their earlier years as they walked hand in hand stopping every few seconds dancing back to make sure mom and dad hadn’t fallen to far behind. Their faces beaming from ear to ear, laughing and giggling as they scoured the field - never leaving each other’s side.  Oh the fun they had, always seeming to locate the largest pumpkins in the patch and not quite strong enough to hoist them into the wagon. As I drifted back to the present, I had been witnessing what I had experienced over the last 15 years. Two sisters with an inseparable bond enjoying a family tradition started so long ago. God is good and I am blessed.