104 years of celebrating pumpkins, people.
And celebrating deep-fried everything, of course.
Do you think the very first Pumpkin Show was full of corndogs and chocolate-covered frozen cheesecake on a stick?
Or do you think they just stood around and worshipped the giant gourd? (This year’s was the largest ever!)
That’s right. 1600 pounds of pure pumpkin.
It’s certainly changed from when Tracey and I first started going as kids. There are now BLACK PEOPLE there. And people speaking SPANISH. And this guy, whom I spotted almost as soon as we got there the first day.
“Serious or ironic?!”, I whispered to Tracey when I saw the back of his jacket. “Oh, my god, we have to find out,” she replied, a mischievous gleam in her eye. And then he turned around, and he was wearing a vest and tie. And then his boyfriend walked up. Swoon, swoon, swoon.
Some things will always be the same, though, like this ancient carousel that shows up every year.
And like the display of the outfit belonging to the current Miss Pumpkin Show. (When I showed my diverse group of co-workers the photos of the past Miss Pumpkin Shows, one of them said, “They’re all white!” And I was like, “I’m sorry, this surprises you somehow?”
It was the 10th anniversary of Tracey dragging her friends Justin and Dayna to the Show to eat wildly inappropriate-looking fruits-made-unhealthy,
so she made them some adorable commemorative pumpkin pins.
Whether we planned to or not, we ran into absolutely everyone we knew in the three days we went to the Pumpkin Show, including my cousin Bethany and her brother’s baby daughter, Kaydence. Don’t fear; I have an entire series of photos of Bethany peeking out from behind the foods we ate, all creepy-eyed like that, which I’ll post over at donuts4dinner.
I have a long history with the Circleville Pumpkin Show, you know. Why, my great-aunt was even featured on a magazine devoted entirely to it back when she was a mere girl.
But I have an even longer history with Pickaway County itself, which is celebrating 200 years of existence this year.
And I’m sure glad it exists.
21 Comments
I love that there is an entire festival devoted to pumpkins. Do they make all kinds of food items out of pumpkin? I think it should be chocolate covered pumpkin cheesecake on a stick.
Also, that carousel reminds me of that creepy Disney movie _Something Wicked This Way Comes_.
They do make tons of pumpkin items! I love the donuts and the ice cream. I haven’t been able to bring myself to try the pizza or burgers yet. It just sounds…weird.
Aww, I miss the pumpkin show so much! I haven’t been in 8 or 9 years.
holy god, your hair is ADORABLE!
also, i am such a sucker for food on a stick. i think pennsylvanians are a lot like ohioans.
I know you left this comment a long time ago, but I just wanted to say OMG, thank you. I’m trying to grow this mess out for the first time in probably 5 years and am SO FRUSTRATED I want to kill it some days. But then I’m reminded of this comment, and I put the razor down.
Where is our picture? We are so not friends anymore.
I’m sorry… you lost me after the deep-fried cheesecake.
Brilliant!
#1. Where’s OUR picture. We’re also not friends; until tomorrow
#2. Last year’s was the biggest ever. Ya know, just to be accurate. 1636#
#3. Kinda disturbed that I know the guy in the deer jacket. His name is John, he used to live in Lancaster and was friends with my collegiate nemesis Gordo.
#4. Yes, I had a college nemesis named “Little Fat One” in Spanish. You’re not the only one with cool stories!
#5. SHAMELESS PLUG!! Follow me at twitter.com/cvillepshow! for pumpkin related snarkery (and non-pumpkin related snarkery too, though THAT content is not approved my Katie Ett.)
I miss the Pumpkin Show so much already it hurts! And seeing these photos of the food is just salt in the wounds.
I can’t WAIT for the Bethany pictures to hit donuts4dinner, though. They’re the highlight of the entire week for me.
oh, not fair, the giant wang on that gourd weighs at least like 700 of those 1600 pounds.
also i just did the conversion in google, and, like, holy shit, 1600lb is a bit over 200kg short of A METRIC TONNE. that’s like heavier than a JAPANESE SMART CAR. you could add wheels and a solar panel to that pumpkin and SOLVE CLIMATE CHANGE.
an even more dramatic comparison: that pumpkin is approximately 11.5 of me.
or approximately 213 newborn babies.
or 241,915,931 ants.
I love you, Aaron.
WOW – that pumpkin show is seriously branching out. But how can you blame the blacks and gays for coming when they offer big chocolate nut dongs on sticks?!
PS: you are seriously adorable, Does you hair do that NATURALLY??
OMG KEEP YOUR HAIR LIKE THAT EXACTLY FOREVER.
Totally off the subject and apropos of absolutely nothing, but you look SO GREAT in those photos!
So, since everyone else already noted how great your hair looked, especially next to the chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick, I’ll just add that I can’t believe that we didn’t run into you! It’s totally depressing!
my mother embroiders deer like that, better than that, but for real
When you say “but for real”, it makes me think she embroiders the deer. Like sticks needles IN DEER.
Either way, it totally seems appropriate.