Day 4: Pumpkin Festival...

The 22nd Annual Pumpkin Festival is on its way! On October 4th to October 7th, the town of Milton will be hosting another must-see event this Halloween Season with this one.

The festival started in 1985, and was designed to help farmers with the raising and selling of pumpkins. Today, the festival is much much different, and much larger.
Now the festival promotes bluegrass music, banjo picking contests, beauty pageants, baking and pumpkin butter contests and more. Much, much more.

But last year Leslie and I noticed something that the Pumpkin Festival was lacking. We barely saw a pumpkin at the place, a travesty…I know. I remember being a little pissed off about it. I wanted pumpkins, and there weren’t any.

So then I wanted some pumpkin pie. They were out of that. As I type this I still find myself in disbelief. What kind of a Pumpkin Festival doesn’t have pumpkins OR pumpkin pie? A travesty!

They did however, have tons of other food and shopping vendors that kind of made up for it. A lot of the food choices were what you’d expect at any kind of fair or outdoor gathering of this size. But we did find a bucket of nachos that was most awesome.

There were plenty of shopping booths and tables, but it was difficult to tell where one booth ended and another began. Most booths had very similar (if not the very same) products, and I thought I was walking in circles at one time. There were about 20 booths full of the country-home décor. You know what I mean? The cheap new crap that they try to make look like old crap and sell it for outrageous prices? The kind of lame old ugly crap that your folks decorated their house with, and your friend’s folks decorated their house with, and your neighbors decorated their house with? Yea…that stuff.

There were some vendors that were setup indoors, and it was when we entered there that I found myself scratching my head more vigorously than when I found out there wasn’t any pumpkin pie…

At this pumpkin festival, there are various elements that help shape the scene and capture the feel of the season. Like I mentioned earlier…the music, the pageants, the contests…it brings a small-town, country feel to it that truly makes the event something special. In the midst of all of this, was a booth set up for a bathtub salesman. I kid you not.

Can you imagine the scenario where someone would go to a pumpkin festival hoping that their favorite bathtub vendor would be there so they can pick up a pamphlet? I can’t. Can you imagine the phone call to your buddy the next day…

“Hey…I went down to the pumpkin festival last night,” you say.

“Oh yea, how was it?” Your friend asks.

“Ah man it was great! I got me some information about a whirlpool bathtub , man it was nice.”

“A Whirlpool tub? Ah man I knew I should have went down to that festival!!”

Sorry…that just isn’t going to happen. People go to the Pumpkin Festival to see Pumpkins. Not bathtubs.

They did have some pretty neat booths though. At one of the more popular booths, one old geezer sold spoon rings. Others sold homemade jams and butters which was also pretty cool.

Despite my rants, I did have a good time. I loved spending the time with Leslie and we’re planning on going back this year.

It runs for four days, so if you’re wanting some sights, sounds, and smells of Autumn (or a bathtub) you should definitely check it out.