'My Best Jack O' Lantern'

Story ID:	1073
Written by:	Bonnie Jarvis-Lowe
Organization:	Retired RN/Freelance Writer and Photographer
Story type:	Story
Location:	Port Saunders, Newfoundland and Labrador Canada
Year:	1959
Person:	A Wonderful Teacher and his project

'MY BEST JACK ‘O LANTERN’

One time, many sleeps ago, as the children say now, I attended a two-room school. It was in Newfoundland, in a little place called Port Saunders. I loved my pets, friends, school, and I speak of that little community often. Not too long ago my sister and I had quite a discussion about our different Halloweens, the one when we had the chicken pox, the one of the snowstorm, the one where our brother made himself sick on the sweets, but there is one Halloween that is by far the most memorable.

In our little school one October, Thanksgiving came and went, and we were into drawing pumpkins, most of us never having seen one. We had over the years carved oranges, turnips, and all sorts of things to make our Jack O’ Lanterns. It was accepted that this was what we used and nobody questioned it at all. Until one memorable Halloween when we had a new teacher in our little school.

The new teacher was a young man, barely out of school himself, and full of all sorts of stories of the world outside our community. He was full of creative and interesting ideas. We adored him, and even got to school on time to see him. If anyone could become a good teacher, it was him, and he did. He went on to become a professor at a university.

About a week before Halloween our teacher suggested we have a Halloween competition to see who could make the best Jack O’ Lantern, and we would compete with the other classroom. Our minds took off in various directions, hands shot up, everybody had suggestions, but the teacher raised his hand.

"Now this will be an indoor contest, and what do you think we can use that will not cause a fire, is hard to work with, but will last forever?"he asked the class.

Well, everyone had an answer but not the one he wanted. He reached under the desk and brought up a tin can, similar to those that vegetables came in,

"What do you think of this?" he asked our wondering and questioning faces.

Yes, we agreed, we could use tin cans, and light the candles inside, this would be fun!

The teacher set out the guidelines. The can had to have a wire handle, a certain size candle, and we were allowed to have one adult help us and it couldn’t be him, as he was to be one of the judges.

So for a week we had parents, neighbors, older friends, the grocery store man and anyone else we could commandeer, helping us with our tin creations.

My sister remembers using a bean can, I remember the ‘corn’ can, and we both remember scratches on our hands, and most of all we remember hiding our cans from each other.

The day of the Halloween party came, our mothers baked for the event, and all our Jack O’ Lanterns were lined up on a table. There were no names on them as they were ready for judging. The afternoon was dark, and we waited until almost twilight, then the teacher lit each candle in our cans, and put a piece of dark cloth up to our one front window.

It was truly an awesome experience, as we stood, or sat in our seats, and looked at the transformation of the tin cans into beautiful Jack O’ Lanterns, all glowing, all reflecting off one another. Teacher finally said he just couldn’t choose, so we all were winners, and we all got a special little prize he had made up for us. We sat in silence in that little school room as the heat of the stove died down, and the tin cans lit up the room, with beauty and reflected light. I will never forget it. They all had such grand smiling faces.

Then the lower school room joined us. Their teacher could not choose either, and they all had a prize. They filed into our larger room and placed their creations on a table on the other side of our classroom.

What a sight to behold, a memory to savor for a lifetime, and a lesson in creativity never to be forgotten. The room was ablaze with lights, it got dark outside, it always got dark early so far north, but it just seemed so much darker that day with so much light inside. We had our Purity syrup, our cupcakes, and left the school with our little candle-lit tin cans. Our very special Jack O’ Lanterns. What a wonderful lesson, what a wonderful afternoon, and what dedicated teachers!

It is just those sorts of moments that shape our lives, and we never forget them. We had few comforts at school, but we had marvelous teachers and their creativity, something they shared with us every day.

I have a pumpkin to carve, and this year I will make a tin can Halloween light as well. The tradition should live on, the tradition of sharing, caring, and most of all, creating and making the most of what we have. Thank you teachers of Port Saunders, Newfoundland and Labrador. My education in life, in school and a great career in Nursing was all possible because of people like you.

May all your Jack O’ Lanterns still be burning bright!