Smashing Statesville!

One of the best things about my job is that I learn a lot about local events. When I wrote a piece about downtown Statesville for the September 2017 issue of CURRENTS, I made a note about the town's upcoming Pumpkin Festival. I'd heard about this festival for years, but after spending time in Stateville's beautiful downtown area (it really is lovely), I knew this was the year for the Tate family to head north on I-77 and check it out.

We talked about it for weeks, as the website listed all sorts of fun activities from rides to a classic car cruise-in to live music. But I have to say that it wasn't until I saw pumpkin smashing listed as an activity that I was in. Ever since I saw the Modern Family episode about pumpkin chunkin', which involves catapulting a pumpkin across a field, I've been interested in the pumpkin disposal arts. Obviously you can make a pumpkin pie, but smashing one seems like way much more fun. My children were just as excited as I was.

When the day of the Statesville Pumpkin Festival arrived, it was overcast outside and the forecast predicted rain. We didn't let that stop us. If it rained on us, we decided we'd have a nice lunch downtown and explore the best we could. Luckily we missed most of the heavy rain and were able to explore all the art and craft booths, as well as listen to Rockie Lynne perform on the main stage. I had the honor of writing about this country singer songwriter/Statesville native in the May 2017 issue of CURRENTS.

As soon as we walked into the festival, we saw remnants of where previous pumpkin smashing had taken place. We vowed to come back later to take a turn.

While we walked around, we took at the architecture of downtown Statesville, and my kids got temporary glitter tattoos. Later we had a delicious lunch at Broad Street Burger that fueled us for some serious pumpkin smashing. When walked back to the pumpkin smashing area, people were obliterating pumpkins left and right with huge wooden mallets. For $1 a pumpkin, you could release all of your stress in just a few blows. I was plain giddy.

My husband, John, helped our son and daughter smash their individual pumpkins, as the mallet was fairly large. When it came my turn, I cleared my family away so I could cross pumpkin smashing off of my bucket list. My first whack didn't do much damage, but my second whack made a dent. The more I hit it, the more my pumpkin exploded into little pieces. While it might sound barbaric, it really was just fun, simple fun, that you don't get the opportunity to experience that often.

As we made our way down I-77 to Cornelius, we all talked about how much fun we had. Despite the rain, we were able to spend a fall day frolicking in a new place, and none of us will ever forget how fun it was to smash a pumpkin.