TOWAMENCIN – If you grew up in Towamencin Township, you can mark your calendar by at least a few events that annually have shaped the rites of passage of so many Towamencin denizens . Sometime around late January, there is the first big freeze that usually lasts about a week and brings hockey and skating enthusiasts to the creek at Fishers Park. And of course, the Saturday before Christmas always brings Santa on top of a firetruck, making his way through all the township neighborhoods. But perhaps most iconic event over the last 25+ years in Towamencin are those three, usually crisp, nights in late October when Green Lane Rd residents Charla and Herb Vandegrift open up their sprawling, wooded Towamencin oasis to the thousands who come to see what has become affectionately known as “The Pumpkin House.”
As a Towamencin teenager, I had the privilege of getting to know Herb and Charla well, and for several years partook in the ritualistic pumpkin carving process – and a process it is, carving out intricate designs on upwards of 200 pumpkins each year. Pin the design on the pumpkin, use a thumbtack to poke holes in the pumpkin and outline the pattern, and then very meticulously, with very small knives, cut every little line and detail and hope it turns out. Then, cut a “chimney” in the lid, spray the pumpkin with lemon juice, cover it with 
saran wrap, and set it aside in the completed pile. Ahh… those were the days.
Well, this year, as the Vandegrifts readied for another year of their famed jack o’ lantern display, one thing was decidedly different – the message on the sign they hung from the trees in the front yard – “Tell a friend, bring a friend –Our last year!!” And with that, I had to face the reality that a long-standing tradition of my youth was coming to an end. But of course this is not something central to just my own days in Towamencin; the annual three-night display on October 29-31 has become a destination for thousands of intrigued pumpkin carvers and pumpkin perusers. Young and old have made the pilgrimage to the Vandegrifts’ sylvan front yard annually, and the joy that Charla and Herb, along with dozens of carving helpers, brought to the faces of those kids and adults for decades will most certainly last forever. Beginning with just 13 pumpkins back in 1986, the display grew exponentially throughout the 1990s and has weathered everything from snowstorms to hurricanes in recent years, and is as impressive as ever this year.
In just the last two nights, the usually quiet Towamencin neighborhood tucked away in the far corner of the township has come to life with streams of cars and hundreds of people leaning in a for a closer peep at the final curtain call of jack o’lantern lore. It’s a scene not to be missed, and there is just something magical about walking down that stone driveway, bumping into (sometimes literally) people from the neighborhood and from throughout the community, and of course stopping down by the garage to say hello to Charla and Herb. And certainly one cannot forget to pay special attention to the pumpkin carved with the likeness of Charla’s mother, Rose, who for many years would hand out candy right next to the garage doors.
With this year’s jack o’ lantern display coming to a close tonight, Towamencin bids farewell to one of its great treasures. Onlookers have one final chance to stop in and see the Halloween magic this evening, before the last candle burns out on this Halloween tradition. And if you do head to “The Pumpkin House” tonight, be sure to say hello to Charla and Herb and thank them for what they have given so many people for so many years.
