Registered: Aug 2000
Location: I don't fukn' know!
Posts: 5137

Pumpkin Show!

http://www.pumpkinshow.com/

friday night I called my friend rachel, to see what was up. She reminded me that I said I wanted to go to this gig, and if I still wanted to go, I'd best be hopping in the car now and head the fuk over.

so I hoped in the car and headed the fuck over.

the other folks Caroline, her man... whatever the fuk his name is, and Rachel's sister Sueann, were already there.
we hopped in Caroline's auto, and drove off into the ohio night.

we went beyond the city limits, and out into the country, where folks were having night time hay rides and pumpkin picking. Off we went, down the side roads to Circleville, a place I have never been to.

So we get there, and I am treated to a small town spectacle I have never bevore witnessed!

We parked in a gas station parking lot, which was next to the railroad tracks, which was next to a grain silo. we cross the tracks, and I see in the small town streets just PACKED with people. on either side of the street, there were food vendors, selling well, mostly carnie food, and junk, but also, anything and everything made of pumpkin.

We arrived just in time to have our way to the fair to be blocked by the parrade. OH YES! there's a parade, with a pumpkin Queen. But we got there in time to watch the Shriners ( old dudes with weird hats, who have 'secret rituals & arcane symbols' but they're cristian, and a respected group. I dont get it) marching by. Each troup with different colored jackets, and all over 100 I think. So we dodged the parade (not without getting bitched at by some mom because we were blocking her kids view. like the kid wants to see old dudes march) we wind into the throng.

I was very entertained. I had forgotten my Ohio roots.

HERE we have the small town people. the men who like to hunt, and wear hunting related clothing, and mullets, with their women, who's hair get's larger in proportion to the distance they are from any major city. AH it brought me back to the 80's it did! While waiting to get cider we had the joy of watching one mother scold her 2 yr old todler for banging a plastic rattle against the stroller armrest, hence breaking the rattle. "Weeelll that's it! you've dun broke it!" kid drops the rattle. " Well that's IT, you've dun lost it now! dont you even THINK yous gonna get it back!". I watch the rattle scrape and bounce on the ground, being kicked by various people untill it hit our feet.

So we go to find food, which is the only reason for going to a festival like this.
we treat ourselves to various goods. I had to borrow cash from Rachel, for I forgot to hit an ATM before we left the city. I foolishly thought OH there will be an ATM at the fair.

THE HELL THERE WAS! every bank, nope, no atm! WTF kind of primitive civilization is this!?

anyway, we have cider and sausage, and vinega r fries. OH my stomach was loving me! we wind around, the parade stopping our path 2 other times. Damn long parade, damn small town. I was entertained by the boothes selling goods. There was an electirc palm reader, with a computerised voice which announced what the computer was doing. there were boothes selling clothing of various kinds and makes, and knick knack shops, selling things like leather purses, christmass decorations, puppets, hats, pork rinds, etc, and including pumpkin show memorbelia!
Of course there was also games of chance, and rides. I was looking at the people working these shows, & I wondered if they were real carnies, who travel around with these gigs for a living. They didn't look it. but then there's no way for me to tell.

normaly my friends dont go on rides at this event, but rachel had a hankerin to go on one, being that she didn't have a chance to because she was breeding. So we went on this egyptian boat ride, that swung back and forth untill the boat was verticle. it wasn't a rollercoaster, but it was fun anyway.

after that, we were finishing up walking the fair, I finally found the one bank in Circleville that had an atm! JOY! I paid rachel back, and bought myself some pumpkin dougnuts (I was determind to eat something pumpkin at this festival!)
as we leave, the crowd was thining, we passed by troup of shriners playing old country music,it fit the atmosphere very well, with the town's 100+ yr old 3 story buildings that line the streets, and the people enjoying themselves. Sueann found what she was looking for, pumkin hard icecream, and as she was getting that I noticed that this trailer was advertising for stone skirting.

& so we walk back to the car, and as we walk back I imagined what I would be like if I grew up in a town like that.
I think I'd be a hoodlum. there wasn;t much else to do in that town except join civic events or be 'bad'.
so we hop in the car, and drive home

I ate my doghnuts. and all was good

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: California
Posts: 4252

We have a thing called Maturango days here. It is going on this weekend.

http://www.maturango.org/

One of the choices for our city's name was Maturango. I think it is an Indian word for Manure. Luckily they chose Ridgecrest. Originally it was Crumville Station on the old wells fargo stage trail.

I bet there were country folk staring at you guys muttering something about city folk.

The water pressure in that town must have been down to a trickle due to all the bathing going on! Heh.

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Virginia Beach, VA
Posts: 1480

sounds like fun

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 5131

Gawd dangit PMG I missed the show?
Why didn't you call me?
Next year I'm taking ya, and you getting a pumkin burger. Ya gots to have a pumkin burger, and ya also gotta go see the 5 foot diameter pumkin pie, with 600 finger holes in it from all the RoundTown locals poking it as they go past.

Can't believe you didn't call me.

I can't remember Caroline's guys name either.
How long ya think he'll last?
prolly about 2 years and $14,000 of debt like the last one.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Oakland-ish
Posts: 6032

that sounds like a lot of fun, pmg.

A few times I have gone out to this pumpkin thing that happens at this one farm, you pay like a dollar to get in and a dollar for the pumpkin you are going to get. Once in, they have a bonfire with hay bales in a big circle around it to sit on, a stage with a country western band with two dancers...one in a big ear of corn costume and the other in a pumpkin costume. They sell hot chocolate and other food stuff from a stand, and a big barrel of free apples.

The best part is the wagon ride, where this guy pulls up with a tractor and a big wagon filled with hay to sit on, and he drives you out to the pumpkin patch. They do a really good job of decorating the path with jack-o-lanterns, and all the little kids go oooh and ahhhh as we make our way out to the field.

Then you get out and look for pumpkins. To find a nice pumpkin you usually have to walk a ways, which is all part of the fun. They have fields and fields of pumpkins. And as it is with these things, you find the perfect pumpkin and carry it for 5 minutes before you find a more perfect pumpkin and so on and so on until you have chosen and rejected 10 pumpkins. I always feel a little guilty about the ones I leave behind. I am not good with break-ups, even in very short relationships with squash

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location: NH
Posts: 586

Come to New Hampshire's Pumpkin Festival!!!

I'm sure it will look just like the one in Ohio

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: I don't fukn' know!
Posts: 5137

quote:

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Originally posted by BnB
Gawd dangit PMG I missed the show?
Why didn't you call me?
Next year I'm taking ya, and you getting a pumkin burger. Ya gots to have a pumkin burger, and ya also gotta go see the 5 foot diameter pumkin pie, with 600 finger holes in it from all the RoundTown locals poking it as they go past.

Can't believe you didn't call me.

I can't remember Caroline's guys name either.
How long ya think he'll last?
prolly about 2 years and $14,000 of debt like the last one.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location:
Posts: 3030

Matt. His name's Matt, if anyone cares. Small town Ohio sucks the big one.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: I don't fukn' know!
Posts: 5137

naw, it doesn't suck. it's just a lifestyle, like any other.

it's a fun place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Payne, Ohio
Posts: 2062

quote:

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Originally posted by lunacy13
Matt. His name's Matt, if anyone cares. Small town Ohio sucks the big one.

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Asshole! I live in small town ohio!

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