By Larry Judkins
Glenn County Observer
That’s one relatively short drop for a pumpkin, one giant plummet for pumpkinkind.
There was one, and only one, undisputed winner of the Orland Fire Department’s 2024 Pumpkin Drop Survival Contest on Saturday: the Powell family, who took it as their mission to design and engineer a mock lunar lander.
For their efforts, they won $20.
Time will tell if this will encourage any member of the family to seek a career as a NASA engineer.
And what did the older Powell boy do after the contest ended? Why, what any all-American, red-blooded lad would do, of course!
He smashed his previously unblemished pumpkin on pavement of the parking lot, alongside all the other pumpkin bits and pieces.
And speaking of red-blooded, the big surprise of the event came when what appeared to be an ordinary pumpkin was dropped without a parachute, without a box filled with bubble wrap or padding, without anything.
How unimaginative, right? Firefighter Jerry Kraemer, who had the honor of dropping the pumpkins from the top of the ladder, later admitted that he wondered why anyone would go to the bother of dropping a completely unprotected pumpkin.
“Are they out of their gourd?” others asked themselves.
Nevertheless, Kraemer performed his dropping duty without complaint, and released the pumpkin from his grasp.
As soon as it hit the ground, it became clear why this particular pumpkin was special. When it broke open and splattered in the parking lot, it was immediately realized that it had been injected with a blood-red dye.
This entry won the best of show category.
All of the pumpkins were eventually damaged beyond hope.
A few made it through the event with only some nasty cracks, but even these were said to be in a vegetative state.
It is safe to say that just about everyone is hoping for a pumpkin drop next year.
Well, maybe not the pumpkins
The Glenn County Observer 