Ryan Glavey
Administrative Executive Editor
With the all-too-predictable rainy weather, the L.P. Young Student Center lawn was covered with pumpkins for the annual Keene State College Pumpkin Lobotomy. I sifted through the array of tall, short, small, large, traditional orange or even green pumpkins for the one I would carve for the Keene Pumpkin Fest.
This year’s batch was already thoroughly picked through before I got to the student center, but after a few minutes of searching I found my subject. I found a short, fat pumpkin that had a lot of dirt on it, but I saw its potential and took it home to carve.
Picking the pumpkin was the easy part, but then came step two: deciding on a design. I’m far from the most artistic sculptor, but I wanted to do something a little more creative this year. I considered a few possibilities as I cleaned out the pumpkin guts. I chose the traditional route to carving this year, with nothing more than a steak knife and a large spoon for scooping out the pumpkin. I decided it would be appropriate to carve The Equinox as my design, to represent the paper at the festival.
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Unfortunately, after only a few minutes of the meticulous work I realized I did not have the patience or ability for intricate letter-work. I had already started however, so I did my best to adjust my plans to salvage my pumpkin. I opted for a more traditional jack-o-lantern design. With a pair of rectangular eyes, a triangle nose and a goofy smile with a couple of teeth my contribution to Pumpkin Fest was complete.
I carried the orange face into the fray of downtown Keene in full swing with the weekend festivities. I left my work with the rest of the delivered pumpkins and left to later return for the lighting of the jack-o-lanterns. The festival did not disappoint, like every year there was bevy of unique and creative designs to search through to find my creation. There were several carvings that caught my eye, from a well-crafted dragon, words spelled out in a row of pumpkins, to a sea of brightly-lit goofy faces.
I made my way through the hordes of visitors filling the streets of Keene. Main Street was littered with all manner of pumpkins, how was I going to find mine? I searched through the stands up the street. My journey brought me to the town square and the giant pumpkin marking the epicenter of the Pumpkin Fest. My hunt through the pumpkins at the center of town left me empty handed and, still not any closer to being reunited with my creation. As I made my way back down the other side of the pumpkin-lined road, I grew distraught. At this point I assumed I had simply overlooked my pumpkin a long time ago, and was searching in vain through the remaining bunch. I became less and less vigilant looking through the seemingly endless rows of pumpkins, assuming I’d never find my pumpkin.
Then, I saw it. To my amazement there it was, almost at the end of the street, as if waiting for me at the conclusion of my journey through Pumpkin Fest 2012. My pumpkin’s gaping mouth let out a large amount of candlelight, helping it stand out amongst a rather dim sections of the strip. I rejoiced at my accomplishment, and admired my pumpkin amongst its festival companions. I took one last photo of the glowing jack-o’-lantern before heading home, leaving my pumpkin to its fate amongst its numerous orange brethren.
Ryan Glavey can be contacted at rglavey@keene-equinox.com
