THEY'RE ALL DIFFERENT

As an art project in grade school, we were assigned an apple to carve a face in. Then we were to sit the apple in the window and allow time to form its features.

By Halloween our apples had their own distinct appearances. Mine didn't look much like the one pictured. Or maybe mine was just carved earlier allowing severe wrinkled curtains in its face.

Halloween served well because most looked like witches. And I'm sure Mrs. Cross had grown tired of pumpkins annually covering her windows to the west. I don't recall any turkeys drawn for display at Thanksgiving either.

She was a creative art teacher who also assigned paper mache projects that were fun. I still have a faint whiff of the paste smell that filled our classroom.

The first assignment she gave was to crease a piece of paper lengthwise and write our names in large cursive. Then we rolled and rolled the paper until a mirror image formed on the other side. Then we created a picture, abstract or actual, that joined the two.

I remember thinking that Dee Ann Ford had to be the coolest name because her art work was the best. It was sometime later that I realized that Dee was simply the best artist.

We kept my apple for more than one season if I recall. How my Mom packaged it and kept it "fresh", I don't remember.

With Halloween approaching, you better get busy carving or your apple won't look witchy enough.