Halloween, lit with 5,000 candle power

Running the show is also nonstop work: "Every day we take away the rotted ones, light the show, run the show, come home, redo the big ones, get up at 8 a.m. and start all over. It has to be that way," Reckner says.

The pumpkin crew has its own kind of language, says Ms. Bousquet. "Dorothy's down," they'll say, "but the Scarecrow's OK. Bogart is rotten. Edith will last another day but Archie's gonna be mush after tonight."

To John Reckner and crew, these are not fruits, they're performers. Divas even. Take, for example, the 800-pound beauty carved with the image of firefighters hoisting the American flag for the 2001 show. It took 10 men standing shoulder to shoulder in the cold, digging the toes of their boots in the mud to shove a blanket under it, then gently drag the giant to the loading lift of their truck for the trip to Providence.

Reckner's worst nightmare?

"Periodically I have a dream. We don't even have the pumpkins yet and it's showtime."

Worst real-life nightmare?

"One of the Norman Rockwells took us five hours to carve, and it got dropped. Then once there was Humpty Dumpty. We had a big old dead tree and we cut it in half. We were trying to get a 100-pound Humpty pumpkin up the tree using two ladders and, well ... it fell."

This year's show has been percolating in Reckner's imagination ever since he turned the 2002 show into compost for his Japanese garden. "This past year we installed surround sound, and it really made a difference. This year we're upgrading the lighting." He imagines the pumpkins in "skits": a Mother Goose skit, a skit with a tropical theme for a path through the wetland exhibit (carvings of parrots, crocodiles, palm trees, complete with a working volcano in the pond), a fun-house skit.

"I love to combine music with the carving," he says. "The challenge is trying to keep it a unique experience."

No one can argue that Reckner, or his pumpkins, are not unique.

Last season, as the sun went down, John walked the pumpkin trail at the zoo for the final time that year. He rounded up a dozen rotted gourds, pulled them into his truck, and set a dozen, freshly carved, in their places. The pond's surface was still. Voices drifted from the trail - last-minute instructions to the volunteers, vendors setting up a cider-and-pretzel stand. Then, darkness.

A mom, dad, and two kids had driven down from Massachusetts to see this, and as the crowd cascaded through the front gate and rounded the bend toward the first displays, the family stopped dead in their tracks.

"Pumpkins!"

• The 2003 Jack-O'-Lantern Spectacular is showing now through Nov. 2. For more information, call: 401-785-3510, or log on to www.rogerwilliamsparkzoo.org

1. Scoop deeply. The more 'guts' you remove, the longer your jack-o'-lantern will last. Try to scrape out all but about one inch of the rind. (The pros use ice-cream scoops to gut the pumpkins.)

2. Watch the temperature. Cold is good; hot is bad. If the weather gets warm, store pumpkins in a cool cellar.

3. Moisturize. Rub petroleum jelly along cut edges to prevent the pumpkin from drying out too fast.

4. Vent. Cut a small hole in the top to release heat from the candle.

5. Angle the top. Cut the pumpkin's lid in a five- or six-sided shape. Cut the lid at an angle, too, so it won't fall inside.

6. Use the scraps. Reshape and reattach cut-out pieces with toothpicks to add horns, noses, or ears.

7. Use the right tool. The key to making fancy shapes is a narrow, thin, serrated blade - wielded by an adult.

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