Out of my gourd...
My life sometimes gets up a head of steam and plows down everything in sight, like a locomotive out of control. But then, other times my life is like a punctured baloon which is limp and fizzling. Right now it is wavering somewhere in between… For one thing, it’s snowing!
No it isn’t. I was just kidding, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. It is leafing though and it’s the strangest thing to watch…the leaves look exactly like they’re taking turns dropping in graceful little “plops.” First one, then another from another tree, then another and… It’s like they held a summit meeting during the night and made an agreement how to proceed. It starts at the very top of the tree. Usually the autumn leaves blow around all over the place but this morning there is no wind.
I wanted to catch them in the act! Oh, I don’t mean the overt act of blowing around on a windy day. That’s a given, but this straight plopping down of the leaves is a completely new phenomenon for me to see and I’ve been at this watching stuff a good many years. Usually, I go to bed at night and the trees are fully leafed and then the next morning they’re all on the ground.
I guess we just don’t get that many completely ‘calm’ days in the Fall. It looks like a soft snowfall of huge flakes, only it’s leaves. I finally feel like I’m getting the most out of an autumn. After all, last month it was the squirrels hanging upside down on the tips of the branches and this month it’s polite leaves trying to masquerade as snow. I suppose this seems lame to some folks reading this, but I’m feeling privileged right now because Mother Nature has finally decided to include me ‘in the loop,’ even if only for a couple of hours. I bet Jane Goodall felt like this while she was observing the chimpanzees frolic around…
Oops, I guess I spoke too soon…there’s a breeze coming up now and the leaves are whirling around in a maelstrom, as they usually do. That’s okay though, because I finally saw the beginning dance for myself and the show lasted for awhile and was very entertaining. I’m now content… For once, I was “Foxy on the spot.”
This past weekend, our small city saw the annual gourd sacrifice. It effectively clogs the city like a drain stoppered up by greasy, sticky debris for a couple of days, starting with the preparations and lasting through the monumental clean-up which takes place immediately after the fireworks marking the end. I suppose they clean up immediately because they want to eliminate the fodder so the midnight revelers, sometimes known as the inebriated college crowd, don’t take it into their noggins to have a pumpkin smashing party.
This year 27, 584 poor gourds gave up their meager lives for the sole purpose of a showing in the Guiness Book of World Records. This number was short 1,368 from last year’s world record for the most gaudy gourds in one place, but we still hold the record and people have started coming to our celebration from across the country, across the ocean and perhaps even from outer space. Well, they might’ve come from outer space. You should see some of them! We’ve even attracted the attention of major publications and some celebrities!
Although we didn’t break our record this year, it still provides our area with a whole new way of keeping the local farmers in business and providing unprecedented ways of merchandising nothing and making an economic success of it. Sigh… I wish it would provide a way of lowering taxes. We could feel a lot more enthusiastic if that was a benefit.
Since its beginnings in 1991 with only 600 pumpkins, our community’s gourd fest has grown steadily in popularity and produce. They start planning for the next one the day after the current one and it now takes between 800 and 900 volunteers pitching in to make the festival run smoothly. There are still lots of curmudgeons like us who just wish for a peaceful weekend but I concede that it’s probably good family entertainment if you have kids…
The big fandango has three entertainment stages featuring more than 40 performers throughout the day. Plus, you can see the largest Costume Parade in New England, the Pumpkin Festival Arts & Crafts Fair, a large corporate Pumpkin Patch activity tent, the Museum of Pumpkin Oddities, a pumpkin seed-spitting contest, pumpkin pie eating contest, and much more. For teens and kids, there’s a very popular climbing wall. Kids can also get their face painted, get a pumpkin tattoo (temporary!), or buy a balloon.
We didn’t go. For us it was routine, as usual, chores and errands. I was on a special mission. I was committed to keeping watch over the riotously colored trees. I’ve been assiduously trying to catch the leaves in the process of turning color. And after all, I don’t want to miss anything important…
No it isn’t. I was just kidding, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. It is leafing though and it’s the strangest thing to watch…the leaves look exactly like they’re taking turns dropping in graceful little “plops.” First one, then another from another tree, then another and… It’s like they held a summit meeting during the night and made an agreement how to proceed. It starts at the very top of the tree. Usually the autumn leaves blow around all over the place but this morning there is no wind.
I wanted to catch them in the act! Oh, I don’t mean the overt act of blowing around on a windy day. That’s a given, but this straight plopping down of the leaves is a completely new phenomenon for me to see and I’ve been at this watching stuff a good many years. Usually, I go to bed at night and the trees are fully leafed and then the next morning they’re all on the ground.
I guess we just don’t get that many completely ‘calm’ days in the Fall. It looks like a soft snowfall of huge flakes, only it’s leaves. I finally feel like I’m getting the most out of an autumn. After all, last month it was the squirrels hanging upside down on the tips of the branches and this month it’s polite leaves trying to masquerade as snow. I suppose this seems lame to some folks reading this, but I’m feeling privileged right now because Mother Nature has finally decided to include me ‘in the loop,’ even if only for a couple of hours. I bet Jane Goodall felt like this while she was observing the chimpanzees frolic around…
Oops, I guess I spoke too soon…there’s a breeze coming up now and the leaves are whirling around in a maelstrom, as they usually do. That’s okay though, because I finally saw the beginning dance for myself and the show lasted for awhile and was very entertaining. I’m now content… For once, I was “Foxy on the spot.”
This past weekend, our small city saw the annual gourd sacrifice. It effectively clogs the city like a drain stoppered up by greasy, sticky debris for a couple of days, starting with the preparations and lasting through the monumental clean-up which takes place immediately after the fireworks marking the end. I suppose they clean up immediately because they want to eliminate the fodder so the midnight revelers, sometimes known as the inebriated college crowd, don’t take it into their noggins to have a pumpkin smashing party.
This year 27, 584 poor gourds gave up their meager lives for the sole purpose of a showing in the Guiness Book of World Records. This number was short 1,368 from last year’s world record for the most gaudy gourds in one place, but we still hold the record and people have started coming to our celebration from across the country, across the ocean and perhaps even from outer space. Well, they might’ve come from outer space. You should see some of them! We’ve even attracted the attention of major publications and some celebrities!
Although we didn’t break our record this year, it still provides our area with a whole new way of keeping the local farmers in business and providing unprecedented ways of merchandising nothing and making an economic success of it. Sigh… I wish it would provide a way of lowering taxes. We could feel a lot more enthusiastic if that was a benefit.
Since its beginnings in 1991 with only 600 pumpkins, our community’s gourd fest has grown steadily in popularity and produce. They start planning for the next one the day after the current one and it now takes between 800 and 900 volunteers pitching in to make the festival run smoothly. There are still lots of curmudgeons like us who just wish for a peaceful weekend but I concede that it’s probably good family entertainment if you have kids…
The big fandango has three entertainment stages featuring more than 40 performers throughout the day. Plus, you can see the largest Costume Parade in New England, the Pumpkin Festival Arts & Crafts Fair, a large corporate Pumpkin Patch activity tent, the Museum of Pumpkin Oddities, a pumpkin seed-spitting contest, pumpkin pie eating contest, and much more. For teens and kids, there’s a very popular climbing wall. Kids can also get their face painted, get a pumpkin tattoo (temporary!), or buy a balloon.
We didn’t go. For us it was routine, as usual, chores and errands. I was on a special mission. I was committed to keeping watch over the riotously colored trees. I’ve been assiduously trying to catch the leaves in the process of turning color. And after all, I don’t want to miss anything important…
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