World Records, MEF Birthday and Beards Triumphant!

Best Part of Day - Got to Spend It With Her

A late blog today because I was having too much fun to participate in anything as mundane as writing but that’s for tomorrow’s post.  Since I seem to be a little masochistic I’ll try and describe just how special yesterday in Keene was.  We arrived in the morning to be greeted by uncustomary street closings that forced us to some serious broken field running through back streets to reach the house of the Keene Friend – party central for our Pumkinfest.  See too many photos below - but I couldn't choose between them))

It’s cool going back to a place you grew up in because you know those back streets that get’s you to your destination without resorting to that exasperating GPS lady.  My friend lives in a neighborhood surrounded by houses filled with college kids and they were in full party mode when we pulled in – it did make me feel a little aged by how young these stalwarts looked.

We headed straight downtown hoping to see the kickoff event of the fest – the parade of kids in their Halloween costumes.  It contained its usual assembly of princesses, pirates, and some unfortunate choices in accompanying adult costumes.  As we walked up blocked Main Street I noticed that the scaffolding for pumpkins were surprisingly full for the early hour.  They’re usually full by the end of the day but this was early and maybe a good sign for the effort for reclaiming the world record.

We traveled back through the college partiers to work on our contribution to the effort by carving two pumpkins.  We accomplished that with only few flesh wounds and some toothpicks to cover some of the more egregious mistakes.  I went with a tribute to my high school class while my wife spent more than an hour carving some traced out maple leaves.  While I was staunching the blood flow after my crude but fast effort my wife was taking painstaking care with hers.  An hour later the whole thing collapsed on her and my friend and I were more than a little careful on how we described our shared grief at the demise of her creation.

We delivered the pumpkins and wandered through the full streets to see the more artistic creations.  I love the schmaltz and small town hominess of the Pumkinfest.  It revels in being a celebration of something as weird and homey as a bunch of jack-o-lanterns lit up.  It generates a great sense of community that I think all us are looking for in some form; a basic human need.

We returned back to Keene Friend’s home to welcome our son, the MEF and the MEF’s parents who were going to partake of Pumkinfest this year.  They surprised us by an early arrival augmented by my failure to answer my cell phone in the huge crowds we were wading through.  We turned around and waded back into the crowd now required to keep in touch with each other in the masses,  Luckily a my Keene Friend wore a bright orange ball cap which made keeping track of the various elements. 

The sun set and the jack-o-lanterns bloomed and it was so cool.  Four more MEF friends showed up so the crowd became even more of a challenge, but a welcome one (great people), to negotiate.  We wandered up to Central Square with its iconic pumpkin tower for the official launch of the pumpkin count, supervised by the Guinness World Record folks.  The MEF’s parents and we older participants decided to return to base to drink beer and watch the Red Sox. 

We monitored the count via the local cable access channel.  It was just another homey touch as the local cable guys were interviewing the guy from the grocery store who polices up shopping carts.  He was interrupted by the official announcement where Keene was officially recognized for re-setting the world record!  Very cool.

The young’uns’ returned and we surprised the MEF with a birthday cake since she had declared the entire weekend was officially her birthday celebration.  It’s instructive as to her quality that everyone fell in line with the declaration.  I ensured she cut the cake with the traditional family sword. 

The party then moved to Red Sox prayers.  They were trailing late in the game as the Detroit manager inexplicably removed his dominant starting pitcher.  A few seconds later the irrepressible Sox were in front courtesy of a dramatic grand slam homer.  The entire place erupted in joy.  The MEF was trying to sleep at this point and gamely joined in the festivities.  We all stayed up to see the final pitch and another MEF rousing group primordial scream.  The Red Sox are back in the World Series.

My wife was celebrating with the rest of us until I reminded her that this meant the playoff beard was alive for another playoff series.  This gave her a brief pause and then she said, “what the heck” and gave the beard a quick tug.

Such a fun day.   

 

Wife With Her Ill Fated Creation

My Less than Artistic Creation

Pumpkin Street Bowling

Wife Amongst Other Artistic Masterpieces



Such a Great Group

Do Yourself a Favor Someday and Go to a Pumpkinfest