Monday, October 20, 2008

The Circleville Pumpkin Show

Last Friday I tagged along with the Kinghorns to the Circleville Pumpkin Show, a local event that's been held every year since 1904 or something. It's kind of a hassle to go to things like this—I always drag my feet and make up excuses and say I'll go next year—but I've been living a philosophy of saying yes to fun more, so when the chance arose I took it. It helped that I had spent the week getting mountains of stuff done through a combination of will, going to bed at 10, and rewarding myself with cream soda; by Friday, I actually had 7 hours to blow without any immediate deadline to worry about.



Here's Kate and I with the 1st place pumpkin. That ain't no Burger King crown—this picture doesn't do it justice. I could live inside that thing.



Here's me getting my fortune told by a computer. I'm pretty sure it was related to KITT.



Two words: Pumpkin Pizza. Also: Pumpkin Donuts. Also: onion rings, giant brats, pecan prailines. Also: Danger (see below).



Here's one of the main drags of Circleville in all its pumpkiney glory. The show fills five or six streets like this. Locals make a killing charging for parking in their yards.



Looking down from a ferris wheel.



The freaky thing about carnival rides is that you know they were built by gypsies, but you don't know whether gypsies adhere to the standards set by welders' unions and accredited-engineering-degree dispensers and local governments. You don't even know if the welding equipment was legitimately purchased and is up to code.



Gourds of all kinds are welcome at the Pumpkin Show.



I really don't know what to say about this. Is it a Halloween Tree? Is it a shrine to the Great Pumpkin?



Live it up: you're all going to be pies.



Here's where the danger comes in: The Fireball. Pretty much it's a 60-foot high circle with a roller coaster car attached. Some bum sits at the control and decides how fast and in what direction to spin you.



Our particular bum/conductor took great joy in letting us hang motionless for upwards of 20 seconds at a time, then throwing us through a spin cycle of a minute or so. Worst best ever.



And the place was crawling with Shriners! They made up a good third of the parade all by themselves, noodling around in tiny cars and playing in Dixieland jazz bands and strutting in lime green tuxedos. Classy. I need a fez.



This is the saddest individual I've ever seen. He was made entirely of patches and tears and was dragging an old broom broken in four places and held together with shoelaces.


Big thanks to Kate for remembering to bring a camera and for taking most of these pictures. See you at next year's show. And if you're in Texas this year, you should be going to this.

15 comments:

Sarah said...

That looks like so much fun! The only thing I hate more than clowns are sad faced clowns. Creepy.
btw, this post was exceptionally funny. What's that about?

David Grover said...

Hey, I'm a funny guy.

mom said...

I've been to Wurstfest. That's where my high school German class went on a field trip. I loved the sausage on a stick and the gummy bears and the polka dancing and the bus trip singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall.

David Grover said...

Whoa. Is it weird that 20-something years later I too went to Wurstfest with my high school German class? I wasn't in the class, but Will was, so I got to go too.

Janssen said...

I vote for Shrine to the Great Pumpkin.

Liz said...

hello, Boss Hogg!(I just realized we could call her BH but then what would we call Scott Hogan?) what does btw mean? I don't understand all this newfangled mumbo jumbo. That was the best post ever, Dave. Laugh out loud funny. That looks like the most magical fun ever! I love pumpins, I don't even understand why. Big crazy gourd, or squash or whatev they are. That's probably the same thing! I'm not well read.

David Grover said...

BH=Brother Hogan

Liz said...

hello, Boss Hogg!(I just realized we could call her BH but then what would we call Scott Hogan?) what does btw mean? I don't understand all this newfangled mumbo jumbo. That was the best post ever, Dave. Laugh out loud funny. That looks like the most magical fun ever! I love pumpins, I don't even understand why. Big crazy gourd, or squash or whatev they are. That's probably the same thing! I'm not well read.

Sarah said...

Someone needs to unplug Liz's computer. She's gone blog comment CrAzY.

Hippo said...

She's got the maddness

Jennifer said...

Hey, I don't want to be the only one who doesn't comment about the damn pumpkins!

JSK said...

Pumpkin Loving David Grover, I think we need a full report on exactly what pumpkin pizza tastes like.

David Grover said...

Pumpkin pizza was normal crust and normal cheese plus a pumpkin purée type of sauce and sprinkles of cinnamon on top. It tasted just like eating pizza and cinnamon toast at the same time. Which is to say it was awesome.

Jennifer said...

That.Is.Disgusting.

Sarah said...

true dat dawg.