Pumpkins are Patriotic

So I'm about to leave Wheeling and embark on my adventure to Ohio. Wheeling was a great time, and the WJU community was very hospitable. The Mother Jones House that I stayed at was also a fun time. They made me feel very comfortable and were incredibly cool. That house is like a mini JVC, where students apply to live in an intentional community. Good times.

I would say that this would be my first time into Ohio when I leave in an hour. But it's not!

The first time I entered the great state of Ohio was when I took the Amtrak to South Bend from Worcester, MA. Fine, I only passed through. And I was asleep most of the time.

But more importantly, I was in Ohio last Friday night, where I experienced a nice welcome back to the good ol' U.S. of A. That's right, I enjoyed a nice stroll into the heartland of America to witness the annual Pumpkin Festival in Barnesville.

What was great about this little excursion was how incredibly nostalgic it was. If you are like me, the fall season is my favorite. It intices so many emotions and memories and senses. There is a magical feel to the whole season. The cooling of the air, the darkening of the skies. School is underway, the holidays are approaching, and so on. The different food, the leaves changing, the bundling up of clothing. The change from the bright and bubbly summer is gradual but significant. I'm sure you can all recall these feelings every September, and perhaps pinpoint these feelings more accurately and eloquantly than me.

Now, imagine these emotions, this transition into the magical atmosphere that is autum, and multiply that by like 1000000000000000000000000000 billion. Yeah, that's me. Right now. And the Pumpkin festival sparked that intense reaction that has left me in a nostalgic state of innocent, childhood bliss ever since.

Imagine it's September, then October, getting later in the year, and the temperature, the climate, the season is exactly the same as it was in August. And you're not surrounded by small country towns putting up scarecrows and Halloween decorations, the leaves are NOT changing, and the wind is not getting chillier. That was what I experienced my first autum in Micronesia two years ago. We all love season change, but one of the cultural shocks was being denied that. Palm trees, beautiful snorkling in the pristine lagoon, and humid humidity (it's that hot!) all season long.

Check that: for me, and anyone else in the 'Nesia right now, it's like a 28 month-long August.

So, now I am back. I am experiencing those wonderful feelings of Autum once again. The nostalgia, ladies and gentlemen, is ridiculous. Surreal. It's ultimately a great, sweet feeling.

And there was something very patriotic about walking down a very small Appalacian town in the hills on a bustling Friday night, where the whole town comes together to put all of their spirit and energy and pride into celebrating pumpkins and all of their might.

Here is their website: http://www.barnesvillepumpkinfestival.com/Default.htm

(I saw one of them that night! The actual Pumpkin Queen!)

The little things that can only be found in America stood out to me:

All the high school students working the booths at the carnival concession stands.

Every store, private, family owned, chains, with pumpkin paintings on the display windows. If a store did not show its pumkin pride, I think a brick would have found itself hurled through.

The fried food. So much fried treats and what nots. I had myself a bloomin onion and a good root beer float. It tasted like ... freedom. (The 800% of grease in the onion made me feel queesy, but that patriotic type of queesiness....you know what I'm talking about!)

A 70 year old man in a bright orange (orange being the color of pumpkins) yelling into a microphone examining the dozens of pumpkins brought in to be weighed.

Little kids with pumpkins painted on their faces. Or dressed up as pumpkins...or actually inside a pumpkin.

(This picture, sadly, could have been me when I was 2 years old. I think it says somewhere in the Constitution that all parents must dress their infants as pumpkins for their first Halloweens. I'm pretty sure it's the 28th Amendment.)

Bands of country singers (definitely not professional singers. I think anyone could have jumped on stage if they have handled a guitar or banjo before. I don't even think sobriety was a requirement). We sat and enjoyed the renditions of the Day-O song mixed in with the Beverly Hill Billies theme. (???)

Oh yeah, there were a lot of pumpkin flavored food. Pumpkin juice, bread, pie, icecream, drinks, cake, donut, shrimp (just kidding).

And finally, huge pumpkins. Like Barry Bonds pumpkins (hey-oh)! This year's winner (which was posted up on that digital clock that those banks have, of course) was over 1,200 pounds. I touched it. I would have had a picture with it, but my batteries died (probably from being overwhelmed by the pumpkin spirits that engulfed all of us all evening).

What great times. The fact that it was 59 degrees that night and it made me want to be run over by a truck is besides the point. It was a great cultural experience, part of the reason why I took this job. Exploring middle America is a new experience for me. I got a taste of one of the many flavors of this country. It certainly opened my eyes to what is around us.

For example, a small thing I noticed was that I was definitely the only minority in the entire town.

Viva Cuba!