2000: Keene blows away its pumpkin record with 23,727 jack-o'-lanterns
October 29, 2000

By TEAL KRECH for SentinelSource

They said it couldn't be done.

But, as fast as gusts of frigid air could send crisp leaves twirling down Main Street, pumpkin madness swept through Keene Saturday. With a whopping 23,727 jack-o'-lanterns, the 10th annual Pumpkin Festival squashed its own record -- logged in the Guinness Book of World Records -- by more than 6,000 pumpkins.

Pumpkins weren't the only thing there were more of this year -- police estimated crowd numbers went up, too. In 1999, there were an estimated 50,000 pumpkin-lovers.

Anticipation was thick as thousands of dedicated souls jumped up and down and rubbed their hands together madly, trying to stay warm. Small snow flakes fell. Announcers stalled and stalled and stalled, waiting for the official pumpkin festival counters to arrive with their numbers.

Finally, at well past 8 p.m. (the official announcing time) Pumpkin Festival official Cindy Rodenhauser boomed the final count into the microphone, sending the crowd into claps, cheers, shouts of disbelief. Timed perfectly, fireworks blasted over Railroad Square, turning heads and dropping jaws.

From high above, Keene was a city of lights. Lights in the pumpkins, lights in the sky, lights in the trees. And for 10-year-old Jordan Clement, who came all the way from Connecticut, it was all of Keene's lights that did it.

"They were my favorite part," he said, in awe as the Atlas Pyrotechnics fireworks show shot green and purple and gold tears into the sky. Jordan guessed there were 35,000 pumpkins, but his mom, Amy, came closer to the real number. She guessed 25,000. Their relative, Mary Halpin, who lives in Keene, came up with a more modest number -- 21,000. She was gun shy with her numbers, probably typical of a Pumpkin Festival veteran who experienced last year's disappointment of falling short with 16,349 jack-o-lanterns.

Colleen Mason of Swanzey came closest to guessing the total. A volunteer for the festival, Mason decided to enter a guess into the raffle Friday night, at a friend's encouragement. She was 197 jack-o-lanterns off, guessing 23,530.

Mason was standing right under the announcers -- who were high above the crowd in a cherry-picker -- when they shouted her name into the crowd.

"I just had a feeling they were going to say my name," she said later. She won two nights at the soon-to-be-finished E.F. Lane Hotel on Main Street, pre-booked for next year's festival. She also won $250 and VIP status at 2001 Pumpkin Festival.

"My daughter's all excited that we won't have to wait in line for fried dough," she said, laughing. But, more than anything, Mason was happy for Keene.

"I really felt that we were going to get it," she said. "It seemed like there were so many more pumpkins and there was so much energy."

Energy, indeed.

Visitors from as far away as Hawaii came to this year's festival. Sponsored by Cheshire Medical Center Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene, the city and many local corporations, and produced by Rodenhauser, Karen Wilson, and Center Stage's Executive Director Nancy Sporborg, 2000 Pumpkin Festival blew all expectations -- despite the unseasonably cold temperatures.

"I'm probably the warmest person here," Dennis Buhler said mid-day Saturday. He was disguised as the Pumpkin Festival's mascot, Jack the Pumpkin. Wobbling down Main Street wearing a big orange, felt pumpkin stuffed with newspapers, green sweat pants and a brown stem face mask, Buhler was well-protected from the cold gusts of wind.

"I'm so glad it's not raining," said Susan Peery of Nelson, a tenor saxophone player for the Nelson Town Band. Peery was pretty toasty in her seat in the band's open bus, which rolled through the children's parade playing "It's a Small World After all" and other hits.

Clearing the way for the parade, for the fifth year in a row, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (Keene 799 unit) were crowd control men.

"It's a lot of fun," Cmdr. Bruce Carbone said, as he readied a path for the young goblins and witches lining up behind him near Railroad Square. (They also all brought jack-o-lanterns, Carbone said.)

The hottest new Halloween outfit was Harry Potter and his cohorts. Little boys and girls with bolts of lightening tattooed across their foreheads and wands in their hands pranced up Main Street, showing off their costumes for this Tuesday.

But there were also the good, old basics: firemen and princesses, superman and spiderman, ghosts, pirates, witches, clowns, a cow, Tigger, a handful of dragons, Dracula, Minnie Mouse, a belly dancer, a few bears, a few scary monsters and a lady bug or two.

And there were also those kids with a different vision: a space creature with a big, plastic bubble around her head, a boy dressed up as a "caution" road sign, a little girl in full camouflage with what-looked-like an AK-47 water gun, a little boy morphed into a piece of pizza, and, perhaps the oddest of all, a girl as a breakfast table, her head a vase of flowers, poking through a tray with cereal and milk and other breakfast goodies glue-gunned on.

Throughout the afternoon, bands played, music blasted through Main Street. People ate chili, hot dogs, burgers, hot pretzels, and pumpkin cake, and drank hot chocolate and cider and coffee. Stores dished out candy to early trick-or-treaters, causing massive traffic jams of parents trying to keep track of their children beelining for the sweets.

Spofford resident and member of the Pumpkin Festival performance group The Variations, Jeffrey Repko turned a lot of heads with his black and orange stripped cast.

About two months ago, Repko's brother-in-law ran over his foot by accident, breaking his ankle and leg. With a little help from the doctor, Repko turned a bad situation not-so-bad by getting a jazzy cast for the great pumpkin celebration.

"You gotta make the best of it," he said. Repko was joined by 25 family members from Manchester to Massachusetts to "all over the place."

Capt. Barry Wante of the Keene Police Department said there were fewer calls this year of children and parents separated than last year, though the crowd was larger.

In fact, there were only two mishaps by press time. At 7:30 p.m., a small fire erupted in a storm drain on Gilbo Avenue and Main Street. Wante said the fire department quickly put it out.

At 8:40 p.m., a mounted Dover police officer fell off his horse, after it stumbled on Davis Street. Officer John Usher hurt his arm and leg and was taken to Cheshire Medical Center, Wante said.

Police didn't know why the horse stumbled at press time. No one on the ground was hurt.

As festivities were winding down Saturday night, Wante said buses had transported more than 14,000 into Keene from lots on Optical Avenue and Marlboro Street. More than 2,000 people had been shuttled out in less than hour after the fireworks finished, Wante said.

Sandy Salvatoriello and Janie Lawless came all the way from New Jersey for the Children's Literature Festival -- also held this weekend. But, they had one eye on the Pumpkin Festival.

"There was a double incentive to come to Keene this year," Salvatoriello said.

"This is the first year we brought pumpkins," Lawless added. "So, if they win by two, you'll know who did it,"