2001: The crowds converge, but Keene's pumpkin celebration falls short trying to break world record for most lit jack-o'-lanterns
October 28, 2001
By CECILY WEISBURGH for SentinelSource
Not this year.
The 2001 official Pumpkin Festival tally was 22,663 jack-o'-lanterns -- 1,064 short of last year's record-breaking 23,727.
The crowd on Saturday night -- an estimated 55,000 this year -- ahhhed, but no one seemed to mind, even when a light rain began before the 8:35 p.m. count announcement.
Keene still holds the spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most lit jack-o'-lanterns.
"It's still nice," said Becky Edlund of Bomoseen, Vt., as she watched the fireworks that closed the 12-hour festival with her friend, Robin Gordon of Clarendon, Vt.
"It was definitely the best festival ever. We had more stuff for people to do, a bigger area to do it in, better security ... we just didn't break the record. It's still okay if everybody had a good time," said Sherman Morrison, executive director of Cheshire County Center Stage, the event organizer.
Security was tighter this year, as police used concrete barriers to control traffic at each of the festival's points of entry.
Keene Police Chief Barry E. Wante said the event ran smoothly, with "five or seven arrests, none for any serious violations," and successful reunions for 35 children missing from parents during the festival.
This year, the festival's 11th, was full of the new: a new expansion onto Gilbo Avenue; a new engagement for an area couple; a new stamp commemorating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Gilbo Avenue served as an escape valve to release the congested pressure on Main Street, as crowds packed in to glimpse the gourds that seemed to line every available inch of Main Street and four 40-foot towers at Central Square, Railroad Square, lower Main Street, and Gilbo Avenue.
The pumpkin seed-spitting contest, rides, music, and arts and crafts drew visitors away from the traditional main stretch.
"We put time and energy putting together events that people find fun and move a couple of thousand off Main Street," said Bill Harris of Center Stage.
This year's theme: patriotic pumpkins. Red, white, and blue pumpkins were configured to form a flag on the Central Square tower.
Flags were carved into some pumpkins; others were accessorized with tiny flags. Still others were adorned with signs: "Stop terrorism."
Keene Postmaster Robert A. Beaudine spent his Pumpkin Festival selling about one-quarter of the 8,000 sheets of "United We Stand" stamps memorializing Sept. 11.
The stamps are currently available in just four other places with connections with the events -- New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey. They'll be on sale nationwide Nov. 5.
Twenty-nine carved pumpkins changed two people's lives today. Laid out on the 10th row from the top of the Railroad Square tower: "Heather Chandler." In the next row: "Will you marry me?"
At 6:40 p.m. Steven Lee of Keene led Chandler to the front of the tower. He asked her if she noticed anything. She scanned the stretch of jack-o'-lanterns, strung pumpkin-to-pumpkin with bulbs. Nothing.
A crowd had surrounded the couple, who've been together eight years. All eyes focused on Chandler, waiting. Murmurs of her name from those gathered surrounded her. Then, "Oh, my God."
Lee knelt, opened a ring box, and asked her to marry him.
She said yes.
And the crowd cheered. "Congratulations," someone shouted.
"Touchdown," Lee said.
"I was very surprised and a little embarrassed," Chandler said. "Everyone else knew."
Just 11 years ago, on a balmy late October evening, a Harvest Festival was inaugurated in Keene, boasting 600 jack-o'-lanterns and several thousand visitors.
Today, it draws festival-goers from as far away as California.
Michael Saltz of Bakersfield, Calif., was carving his home state's name into a small pumpkin with other last-minute carvers at a tent on Gilbo Avenue.
"We wanted to make sure they knew someone was out here from California," he said.
He and his children, Adrienne, 11, and Jonathan, 9, flew to the East Coast especially for the festival.
He'd seen Pumpkin Festival advertisements last October through the American Automobile Association, but by then area motels were booked for the 2000 event. So, Saltz did the next best thing: he immediately made reservations for this year and next.
His impressions so far: "Maybe it would be nice if you had warmer weather," he said.
The early afternoon sun was promising; but by late afternoon, clouds had settled in with an occasional light drizzle and chilly wind.
Crowds lined up to tour the "Museum of Pumpkin Oddities," a believe-it-or-not carnival trailer; in specimen jars were the curiosities: was the alien mutated pumpkin real? It looked suspiciously like a squash.
What happened to the rest of the "inside-out pumpkin?" The jar full of seeds and squishy strings of orange meat offered little hope. And just how did the bearded pumpkin grow?
Lucille Mahon of New Haven, Conn., marveled over the creativity inside the trailer -- and outside along Gilbo Avenue. "I can't get over the versatility of all of this," she said.
Over at the pumpkin seed spitting contest, 10-year-old Britta Brennan of Saxton River, Vt., a first timer at the festival, was the top contestant so far in the 9 to 13 age group, clocking in at 17 feet.
Her secret was simple: "I'm pretty good at spitting."
By evening, restaurants such as Lindy's Diner on Gilbo Avenue and Margaritas Mexican Restaurant on Main Street saw lines outside the door. The Chesterfield Boy Scouts' booth sold out of hot dogs, hamburgers, and apple crisp.
Near the festival's end, Morrison thanked the crowd. The festival "creates an experience greater than each one of us individually," he said.
"With your help, we can break (the record) next year."
Contest winners:
Great Gourd Guess winner: Janice Davis of Keene guessed 22,661, two short of the 22,663 total.
She wins a VIP treatment at the 2002 Pumpkin Festival.
Pumpkin seed-spitting contest winners:
Age 5 to 8: Suneeta Barsatee, Woodstock, Vt., 16 feet, 8 inches.
Age 9 to 13: Josh Locke, Amherst, 23 feet, 10 inches.
Age 13 and up: Alan Oppenheim, Taunton, Mass., 33 feet.
A COSTUME PARADE ADDS TO A DAY OF FUN AND COMMUNITY
Once upon a Saturday, in a pumpkin city for a day, lived a magical assortment of citizens.
There were angels and devils, princesses and Prince Charmings, wizards and dragons.
Firefighters and police officers mingled with Tigger and blue monsters.
They paraded down the city's Main Street, and afterward, grabbed as much candy as they could from obliging merchants.
Leading the Pumpkin Festival parade filled with costumes and music was pumpkin-headed Mike Jose from Meredith.
The 13-year-old's face was barely visible through his genuine pumpkin mask. It took 15 to 20 minutes for him to hollow the gourd.
It's a tradition, he said. For how many years, his mother, Leslie was asked.
"It's the third year, Mom," Mike told her.
But pumpkins, not candy, were what intrigued 5-year-old Baily Williams, he said. Baily, dressed in purple and black as the dragon from Sleeping Beauty -- a red-white-and blue scarf tied around his neck -- traveled all the way from Lewiston, Maine, with his mother, Melissa.
"They don't have much up in Maine like this," she said. "I don't really want to bring him out on Halloween night. It's safer" in Keene.
Debbie Ward of Keene, here with her son, Jarel, felt the same. "This is going to be our trick-or-treating with everything going on."
Businesses along Main Street passed out candy to the costumed kids from 2 to 4 p.m.
The aftermath of the tragic events of Sept. 11 echoed in some of the children's costumes throughout the city.
Gregory DiSilva, 5, of Brattleboro was dressed as a police officer, complete with gloves, cap, and a "junior officer" patch given to him earlier in the day by the Keene police.
He chose his own costume, said his mother, Cheri. "He wanted to represent somebody in the community," she said.
Hunter Massucco, 3, of Keene was costumed in firefighter garb. "He liked the idea of being a firefighter so he can help out," said his mother, Monica.
"He has a little purple ribbon ... he was told it's for the heroes in New York."
And he wasn't the only one. Two other children dressed as firefighters stood just behind Hunter in the parade, Monica Massucco said.
One of the many angels floating around downtown was Olivia Bankuti, 7, of Sudbury, Mass., visiting with her sister, Molly, 5, and her grandfather, Steve Bankuti of Peterborough.
Clad all in white, with a tinsel halo, and silver wings, Olivia discovered that being an angel can have its downside. The wings "are bothering me. They keep coming in my face," she said.
It wasn't just the humans attracting attention. Five-month-old Fred was likely the most petted and photographed devil around; the bassett hound was fitted in the red costume by his owners, Emilie Croteau and Burt Blair of Keene.
Was his costume appropriate?
"Sometimes," said Croteau, "but when he's sleeping he can be an angel."
Madison Perkins, 3, and her sister, Makayla, 3 months, came as Tigger and Winnie the Pooh, though Madison was hoping to trick-or-treat as Cinderella, said the girls' mother, Heather.
But, after she bought Makalya's Pooh outfit, "I said they had to match," she said, laughing.
Perhaps Gavin, Connor, and Chris Hay of Stoughton, Mass., had the most inventive costumes.
Taking shower caps, stuffing them with pink and white packing peanuts, and tying pink, coiled pipe cleaners through the tops, they all wore these as "dollar store aliens," Chris Hay, the boys' mother, said.
"We wandered around the dollar store," she said, and thought "what can we do?"
Erik Guerin, 2, of Ludlow, Mass., was a hammer-toting "Bob the Builder."
"He saw it, and that's it," said his father, Jason.
On Gilbo Avenue, Tristan Smith, 7, stood in back of a pumpkin coach painting, having his picture snapped.
It was a perfect fit. Tristan was dressed as Prince Charming, holding a pillow with a white slipper.
"I noticed prospective Cinderellas looking at him," said his mother, Sherri, of Marlow, "but I don't think he's quite interested yet."
