Houston celebrates 40 years of all things pumpkin
Observer-Reporter
The pumpkin decorating station is a big draw for young artists and their parents. Logan Titchenell decorates his find at the 2017 Houston Pumpkin Festival with his parents, Ginny and Charles.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Molly Lanigan, then 8, of Houston scales the rock climbing wall with ease during the 2021 Houston Pumpkin Festival while her mother, Jessica Ali, and her brothers, Kieran and Rowan, watched her from the safety of the ground. The rock climbing wall is a favorite attraction at the annual festival.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter/
In this file photo from 2021, Makenzie Hull, then 9, and her brother Evan, then 6, see just how tall they are this fall at the Houston Pumpkin Festival. The kids, both of Washington, attended the festival with their grandmother Kathy Hull, who was visiting from New Jersey.
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
In this file photo from 2018, Matthew Egizio, then 2, of North Strabane Township, checks out the animals at a petting zoo at Houston’s Pumpkin Festival.
Observer-Reporter
Teo Zatta and Teresa Bukmanic, both of Washington, dance to the music of “Five Guys Named Moe” during a prior Houston Pumpkin Festival.
Observer-Reporter
In this file photo, a Canonsburg boy patrols for candy during the Houston Pumpkin Festival parade.
Observer-Reporter
The parade is always a big draw at the Houston Pumpkin Festival.
Observer-Reporter
The pumpkin pie eating contest is part of the fun at the Houston Pumpkin Festival.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
One year, the Houston Pumpkin Festival hosted a duck race in Chartiers Creek, and the rubber duckies floated all the way to Carnegie, laughed Charles Meddings, a firefighter who serves on the festival planning committee.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Festival planning committee members Charles “Buzz” Meddings, Darlene Taylor and Jonathan Taylor stroll down memory lane, admiring the several scrapbooks Darlene has put together that chronicle the Houston Pumpkin Festival’s history. “I love being a part of it,” said Darlene. “I’m proud of it.”
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
While Pike Street is no longer covered in hand-painted pumpkins ahead of the Houston Pumpkin Festival, the artistry is detailed in the event’s history books, put together and maintained by Darlene Taylor.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
On the pages of Darlene Taylor’s Houston Pumpkin Festival scrapbooks are snippets of parades past, including this image of the “batty” Red Hat Society from Washington. The purple F-150 was driven by Aaron Mansfield, whose wife, Nora, back right, designed the poster and pumpkins.
Many falls ago, before pumpkin spice became a season, the streets of Houston, Pa., closed down for a small seasonal celebration.
After a decade of welcoming larger and larger crowds to Pike Street and, more importantly, the less-than-a-square-mile town, the Houston Pumpkin Festival committee, founded by former mayor Henry Polinski, passed the party-planning reins to the local fire department.
“The fire department took it over in its 11th year,” said Jonathan Taylor, a member of both the Houston Volunteer Fire Department and the pumpkin festival planning committee. “It’s a rain-or-shine event. It kind of showcases the community. It’s a lot of fun: three nights with a lot of friends. I’ll see people at that festival that I might only see at that festival, past acquaintances and people I worked with. That might be the only time I see them a year.”
Each year, an estimated 50,000 people flock to Pike Street to celebrate all things autumn. Of course, that number has grown steadily over the years. When the fest outgrew busy Pike Street in the mid-90s, the fire department moved the fun to the Houston American Legion grounds, where the 40th annual Houston Pumpkin Festival kicks off at noon Friday, Oct. 13, with the traditional opening ceremony, followed by the crowning of the festival prince and princess.
“The Chartiers-Houston School District band does the opening ceremony and we crown a prince and princess, kids from Allison Elementary School,” said Darlene Taylor, the festival’s historian and fearless leader. “And then the youth cheerleaders from C-H perform.”
The festival runs from noon to 7 p.m. Oct. 13, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 14 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 15. For three days, more than 175 area vendors set up shop on the expansive Legion grounds, selling everything from crystals and stones to tumblers, from crafts to furniture and home decor, and other items made with love.
Food trucks, including Johnny’s Seafood Shack, JD’s Kettlecorn and Stone Church Acres Farm (who’s adding all things apple to this year’s pumpkin fest) will also be on site. A favorite foodie stop is the Houston firemen’s booth, where every year first responders dish up funnel cakes, serve pizza slices and sell pumpkin festival apparel.
“We have a different T-shirt every year, and some people come that have bought one every year,” Jonathan said.
Live entertainment will keep people’s toes tapping throughout the three-day event, including the Canon-McMillan Steel Band and the Gus is Us Duo at 1 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, respectively.
Throughout the long weekend, attendees can scale new heights at the rock climbing wall, pick and decorate pumpkins or compete in the third-annual Scarecrow Contest. The contest is open to families, businesses and organizations who decorate a scarecrow for display during the festival.
Visitors often pose for selfies with their favorite scarecrow and contribute a cash donation to that piece’s voting box. Donations go toward fire education, and winners receive prizes.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Darlene said.
While every moment of the Houston Pumpkin Festival is a highlight, some events shine brighter or harken back to fests of old.
“The parade’s been a constant since the beginning,” said Jonathan.
At 10 a.m. Oct. 14, the 40th annual parade will wind down Pike Street from Shady Avenue to Cherry Avenue. The parade lasts about an hour and includes a variety of floats, musical acts and candy for young spectators to collect.
The pumpkin pie eating contest is also a time-honored tradition that draws a big crowd (cash prizes are awarded for the three fastest eaters).
“You’re twisting people’s arms to get into it. It’s an eight-inch pie, and it’s the speed in which you can down it. It’s gross,” Darlene laughed. “But the crowd absolutely loves it.”
Part of the festival’s charm is that the event changes annually while staying true to its core: it’s always pumpkin-centric, with lots of pumpkin things available for purchase near the festival entrance. The festival committee works hard to make each year spectacular. In the past, the festival has hosted wacky stunts including seed spitting contests, haunted houses and hayrides, gigantic pumpkin live carvings and bed races.
“They would shut the street down for it,” Jonathan said with a smile. “It was a team of three or four. You built your bed, decorated — it had to be on wheels. They would go one block and then you had to sop, turn the bed around and put a different person on the bed and then finish (the race).”
In the pumpkin festival’s younger days, the fire department shut down Pike Street and painted the town orange — literally.
“Before the intersection was this large, we would actually shut the intersection down for a couple hours and (a local art teacher) would hand-draw a big scene or something on the street. It was awesome,” said Charles “Buzz” Meddings, a firefighter who has been involved with the festival since its inception. “Then we would paint pumpkins going each way, Main Street, Pike Street. We put cornstalks on all the light poles. We don’t paint the streets anymore.”
But Houston does come to life in October, when the town is dressed in autumn colors just in time for the Pumpkin Festival. Many festival-goers don’t realize the nostalgic, family-friendly event is the Houston Volunteer Fire Department’s biggest fundraiser of the year, the thing that keeps its doors open and its equipment up to standards.
“We used to ride on the back of fire trucks and we never had a breathing mask. You wrapped a handkerchief around,” Meddings said, recalling his early firefighting days. “Requirements now for fire service are … pretty hard to keep up with, monetarily.”
Houston VFD is hoping to replace its 30-year-old truck with a brand new engine, and this year’s festival will play a key part in that upgrade.
“It’s time to replace it. We’re looking at an $800,000 engine. When you throw that price out there … that’s a lot of funnel cakes,” Jonathan said.
Unlike surrounding fire departments, Houston does not receive funding from casinos or a large tax base; the borough boasts a population of about 1,200. That’s why the festival is so important: not only does it bring the community together, but it helps to keep residents safe.
“A town this size cannot support a fire department,” Jonathan said. “We live or die by it.”
And people, well, they live for the pumpkin festival.
“When it all comes together and you see all the people interacting and working together, sure makes you proud,” said Meddings. “It just keeps evolving, and we love it.”
For more on this year’s Houston Pumpkin Festival, visit http://www.houstonpumpkinfestival.net/.