Pumpkin Chunkin
Spooky week at EDANDHEIDI continues with something really exciting. You get a little perspective on my upbringing. It seems that the World Championship Pumpkin Chunkin contest is getting national attention again. What is it, you ask? Only the biggest celebration of white trash the country has to offer. It’s amazing. It’s mystifying. It smells like stale Budweiser. Pumpkin Chunkin is one of the few “claims to fame” that my hometown can boast of.
The day after Halloween thousands of drunk white people converge on a small airfield in rural Delaware to show off their pumpkin hurling prowess. The contraptions they use range from huge mechanical armatures designed by MIT, to powerful cannons that can spew the orange orbs a mile, to a bunch of inebriated hicks tossing pumpkins out of a school bus (my personal fav). In case you haven’t figured out by now I come from a slightly rural area. It was an acceptable excuse to be late for school because your cows go out.
Back around ‘93 I worked for a booth there selling cider and stuff. It was a touching tribute to toothless America- it could have passed for “Mulletfest.” It looked like some sort of RV autoshow- with literally miles of mobile homes parked for some sort of Hee Haw Woodstock. As I walked the grounds, I encountered families who had made this airstrip their home for the weekend. 12 thousand strong, they had come from around the whole nation; this was their Mecca, and they were honkytonk pilgrims. Kids tossed empty Coors party balls like beach balls, while their parents relived their glory days touring with the Oakridge Boys. I actually received more beer than cash as payment for the cider.
Anyway, it was an incredible experience. And I wouldn’t trade my heritage for anything. Hooray for you Lewes, Delaware, for you have created a national tradition. And Hooray for you Milwaukee’s Best, for you probably inspired it.
- Official Pumpkin Chunkin Website. This will give you enormous insight on my past.
- Click here if you want more perspective on the contest.
