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Pumpkins spook, delight 6,000
By jeanne starmack
youngstown
Fellows Riverside Gardens turned into a spooky trail of luminescent pumpkins Sunday, and thousands of people came out to see them.
It was the sixth year for the Pumpkin Walk, and about 6,000 people were expected throughout the evening, said Anita Wesler, horticulture educator and “toaster of the pumpkin seeds,” which she was doling out from her post behind the information booth in the Davis Center at the Gardens.
It wasn’t even dark yet, but cars were lined up on Mahoning Avenue waiting to park at 5:30 p.m. as the walk began.
More than 1,000 pumpkins, 844 of them carved, lined the pathways throughout the gardens.
“It’s magical,” Wesler said.
Schools and members of the community carved the pumpkins over three days, starting Thursday, in the service building on the grounds, she said.
Outside, the pumpkins glowed, or in some cases, glowered. Vicki Vantell and her son Shane, 12, of Austintown took it all in.
“I just like walking around looking at them,” said Shane.
“It’s absolutely wonderful,” added his mother. “What it does for the community, and you see the kids’ faces light up.”
The traditional triangle-eyes-and-nose design was very much in evidence, but there were also spiders, witches, ghosts, cats, the word “smile,” and even the words “thank you” spelled out across eight pumpkins lined up on a ledge.
The pumpkins weren’t lighted by real candles, explained Roz Gadd of Girard, a year-round volunteer at the Gardens. Since last year, she said, the battery-operated “candles” have an electric, simulated flame.
Better for her, because it used to be her job, she said, to help re-light them when the wind blew them out.
The weather was better this year too, said Gadd, a retired teacher who enjoys seeing a lot of her former students at the walk.
In the Kidston Pavilion and the Gazebo, the Salem Square Wheels Square Dancers and Smokin Fez Monkey Jug Band entertained the crowds.
Smokin Fez Monkey was all right with Germia Flake, 3, who danced on the lawn while Jada Baty, 5, and their grandmother, Julia Coffer of Youngstown looked on.
Jada’s favorite part of the walk? The pumpkins, yes, but also the flowers, which were still in full bloom and beautiful.
Coffer was taking the girls to the Davis Center in search of Miss Brenda and the pot belly pig, who were there along with other attractions such as pumpkin cookies and cider, a butter-making demonstration and mini-pumpkin decorating for the kids.
Over at the pumpkin decorating table, Olivia Powell of Hubbard watched her children, Adria, 9, and twins Isaac and Chase, 7, show off their artistic talents. With her was her friend Wendy Hendrix, also of Hubbard, and her children, Whitney, 7, Nicholas, 6, and Daphne, 4.
“It’s a great benefit to the community,” said Powell. “All the different activities, and close to home.”