I wasn't a fan of Mrs. Raines 2nd grade class, but in October she had us all enter a Halloween coloring contest with Eckerd's Drug store. I loved coloring, but decided to experiment with colored pencils instead of the usual crayons. When I was finished coloring the cartoonish pumpkin in a pumpkin patch, I didn't think it was very special, but I turned it in. Turns out, I won! When my dad took me to Eckerd's to pick up my prize, it was a stuffed pumpkin (life size!). I kept that pumpkin on my bed every night until I got married. I used him as a pillow sometimes. The orange color had mostly worn off by then, but he still had his plastic eyes and tongue sticking out.