Centerville Pumpkin Show,
Centerville, Ohio, 1959
Among the crowd two suited men stand out gazing and pointing at the beautiful, bountiful harvest of pumpkins and gourds lined on wood platforms. A pumpkin tree is staged in the heart of town. It’s Christmas treeness reminds us that the season of santa is right around the corner. A Ferris wheel spins a block away. Welcome to the greatest pumpkin party in America!
Celebrating everything pumpkin has been happening in Centerville since 1903. The historic festival begins its 106th year today, right here in the center of Centerville, which, btw isn’t in the center of the state where the name would lead us to believe. It’s in southwest part of the state. They should change the name of the city to Pumpkinville?
Thousands of folks come every year from all around to admire the legendary pumpkin expo, catch a glimpse of “Miss Pumpkin Show” and enter biggest pumpkin contest. The record weight of 1524.5lbs was set in 2007. That’s a vegetable that could crush you! Fertilize your pumpkin patch generously with manure and Miracle Grow and you might grow one big enough to win the grand prize next year.
Not only are the pumpkins ogled and admired they get eaten too. Pumpkin cookies, cakes, pancakes, waffles, donuts, ice cream, cream puffs, brownies, taffy, fudge, burgers, blossoms and seeds are all on the menu.
The big star of the food show is the “world’s largest pumpkin pie.” It’s six feet across and has 40lbs of sugar in it. I wanna know where you get a pie tin that big? The super pie sounds yummy but no Centervilleian will touch it after four festive days of being on display and drooled on. So they feed it to some very lucky pigs. Oink, oink! Pigs like pumpkin pie and so do I. Don’t you?
Here’s to pumpkin everything in Centerville, the pie pigs and YOU!
Charles Phoenix
October 21, 2009
Just though Id let you know this is NOT centerville- I grew up with this festival and it is the Pumpkin Show in Circleville, OH. It is held the 3rd week in October every year this is the website for the Pumpkin Show for all those who have not been. http://www.pumpkinshow.com . I highly recommend going
Nope, not Centerville. I grew up in Centerville and graduated from Centerville H.S.
I go to the Circleville Pumpkin Show almost every year (because I’m usually visiting family in Ohio during that time of year and yes, some live in Circleville) and I have soooo many Pumpkin Show photos from over the years and one of that exact scene of the tables from last year. LOL…but that slide is a gem.
Please come to the Circleville Pumpkin Show next year and do a slide show!
Yes, being from Columbus, Ohio it is Circleville. The nice thing is they still have it.
It’s funny how nostalgia only “remembers” the good-ol-days. I seem to remember some concern in 1959 about THE WHOLE WORLD BLOWING UP IN ONE BIG NUCLEAR FUELED INFERNO!
Bomb shelters on display for purchase in the local Safeway lot. A year later, the fascination with the installed bomb shelter in the backyard of a friend’s house. Rather than getting a swimming pool, they chose a “way cool” bomb shelter.
“Duck & Cover”, “Bert the Turtle”. Man. I can still hear that bizarre “Burt the Turtle Says” song. I remember diving into the gutter of the curb… pretending it “was the end of the world” and thinking, “How cool would that be? Just like the movies huh? “The World, The Flesh, & The Devil” with Harry Belafonte! All those mutated “Atomic Monsters”!
Having “been cheated out of” my own personal nuclear holocaust by history left me a little less concerned about ALL THE THINGS “THEY” SAY WE SHOULD BE WORRIED ABOUT NOW.
“Been there. Done that.”
Yeah. “The Good-Old-Days”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World,_the_Flesh_and_the_Devil_(1959_film)
“Centerville” is also the fictitious name of a city in Frank Zappa’s film “200 Motels”… “a great place to raise your kids! Churches!” etc. boasted about by Mark Volman & Howard Kaylan of the Turtles, who were in The Mothers of Invention at that time. Finally, the extoll… “Just like Glendale!”
It definitely is Circleville, not Centerville. How do I know this obscure fact? Because I grew up in the equally small burg of Lancaster Ohio, just down the road a bit. And going to the pumpkin show events was the last cool thing to do before Xmas, right after the Fairfield County Fair (which always was held right around my birthday). As a member of 4H, Campfire Girls, and the high school flag squads, I marched in the pumpkin show parade and walked many a pumpkin display during the 70s.
OOOOPS! I just realized that I totally goofed on the name of the city! Its not Centerville, its CIRCLEVILLE! I was just going by what was written on the slide mount fifty years ago. Sorry Circleville! (and Centerville!)
Also, I wonder if the people of “Circleville?” still get dressed up in suits to show pumpkins the proper amount of respect.
Being born in 1970 I don’t feel that I really ever got to experience this kind of “main street” event. I love the idea of the whole town getting together to celebrate a holiday season or just the town itself. I love seeing the vibrant store fronts in this picture, welcoming shoppers into stores filled with people proud and knowledgeable. It saddens me that big box retailers have moved us away from a sense of community. I may have to make the trek to sink my teeth into some Americana flavored pumpkin pie.
Wish I could jump on a plane for this and try all of those pumpkin goodies especially the pumpkin cream puffs! 106 years of pumpkin tradition is all right with me!
WHAT A WONDERFUL MOMENT IN TIME…THE EARLIER COMMENT SUMS IT UP…AMERICA AT IT’S FINEST ERA….NO WORRIES, JUST GOOD HOLSOM 1950′S LIVING!
Hi, Charles, I hate to have to correct anyone, but it’s actually Circleville, Ohio, not Centerville, where the pumpkin festival is held every year. And the only reason that I know that is because we moved from gorgeous LA to not quite as gorgeous Columbus, OH, and we have gone to the festival. Just thought I would let you know, and that the tables full of gourds are still there!
Agree with Tom G.– times seemed so much simpler back then . . . wish we could find the magic in simple pleasures again . . . thanks for another great nostalgic shot, Charles . . . happy Autumn!
What a sight…..America at its Autumn best….no health care worries, no Balloon boy stupidity, just loads and loads of Autumn bounty! Take me baaaaaaaacccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkk !!!!!!!!!