Keene man specializes in pumpkin repair
By ANIKA CLARK, The Sentinel staff
For the rows of pumpkins that have painted downtown Keene orange, Friday night was the end of a long journey — a trip that took them from the pumpkin patch to the carving table to one last, twinkling stop.
Some pumpkins can be hard to find, a reality 6-year-old Justin Massie discovered as he scoured Central Square before finally spotting the Dracula jack-o’-lantern he carved this week at school.
Others get sick along the way — not sick like the pumpkin in Railroad Square, carved to look like it was spewing goo and seeds, but broken or shattered.
That’s where Uncle Bill the Pumpkin Doctor comes in.
“The kids get a kick out of it,” said 67-year-old William A. Stempkowski of Keene, who moved from gourd to grinning gourd with a stethoscope Friday night. “I pretend I’m taking the heartbeat of the pumpkin.”
The scrub-clad Stempkowski was just one of the many spectacles Friday on Main Street during the Community Night kick-off to this year’s Pumpkin Festival.
People carted, wheeled or even skateboarded their pumpkins downtown, which was transformed into a stomping ground for dragons and princesses, superheroes and villains.
Of course, there were also pumpkins, displayed everywhere from the rafters to a stroller, out of which a child peeked a tiny orange-and-green-clad head.
Even 5-year-old cocker spaniel Willa of Easthampton, Mass., got into the act by wearing a pumpkin costume that looked as soft and wrinkly as she was.
But Uncle Bill the Pumpkin Doctor wears the same thing every year.
Stempkowski has spent several consecutive pumpkin festivals re-lighting jack-o’-lanterns that have flickered out or fixing those with more intensive injuries so they can still be counted.
He carries a bait box filled with all the tools he needs for an emergency squash surgery — tea candles and rubber bands, surgical gloves and nails.
Stempkowski said he’s repaired up to 100 pumpkins in one day and used to do it without the get-up but started donning medical garb after a child pointed him out as the “Pumpkin Doctor.”
“It makes me feel good,” he said of his rescue work before setting out in Railroad Square.
One of numerous people Stempkowski chatted up Friday night was Michael S. Tauckus, of Long Island, N.Y., who was in town with his family for his first Pumpkin Fest.
“I told him my guy was a little short of breath,” Tauckus said of his jack-o’-lantern, which he’d just carted from several blocks away.
When learning about the extent of Stempkowski’s squash Samaritan activities, Tauckus said, “I think it’s great. ... You need somebody to tend to the pumpkins.”
Another person who spotted Stempkowski checking a pumpkin’s vital signs was 8-year-old Sarah Cloutier of Swanzey.
“He was making sure they were happy,” she said.
But just a little while earlier, Stempkowski had tended to a much more serious condition than depression or wheezing.
Shortly before 7 p.m., Stempkowski — on a tip from a pumpkin-conscious little girl — came upon a jack-o’-lantern that had been broken on Railroad Square.
“Major surgery,” he said, while kneeling in front of the pieces, which he put together like a puzzle before nailing them into place.
From time to time, children and adults peered over his shoulder as he worked, and at one point, it looked a little bleak as Stempkowski took a break to wipe his hands on a towel.
But finally, he let loose a triumphant “Gotcha!” and set his scarred but smiling patient back on its display frame.
Lori A. Guyette serves on a merchandise committee for the festival and said she’s seen Stempkowski play Uncle Bill the Doctor for several years.
“He does a great job,” she said. “It’s the philosophy of the Pumpkin Festival ... being committed to the community and committed to the event.”
Anika Clark can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1432, or aclark@keenesentinel.com.
This was published Saturday, Oct. 25, 2009 in The Keene Sentinel
