Poosey Digest: Annual autumn Poosey tradition

It all started when Henry Willis found George Washington sitting in his pumpkin patch. Actually, it was just George’s head. In fact, it was a pumpkin that looked for all the world like our first president.

As a lark, Henry brought George’s head to the church’s fall bazaar sometime back in the early 1960’s and the uncanny likeness made such a hit that the practice of high profile produce has become an annual autumn Poosey tradition. Right there amid the rows of jellies, jams, pies, and quilts we have a special category, “Famous Garden Heads.”

Some studies use social barometers such as women’s skirt length and colors of automobiles to mark the nation’s mood over the decades. In Poosey the social and political climate can be plotted in pumpkins, squashes, gourds and occasionally a stray carrot or potato.

I’ll be the first to admit that some of the vegetable submissions take a great deal of imagination to match up with their namesakes. I’ve seen pumpkins labeled “Ronald Reagan” and “Ulysses Grant” that look like nothing except, well, pumpkins. But someone in the midst of the strangely labeled produce you’ll find a genuine winner. This year’s submissions seemed to be a cut above average.

Perhaps it’s the fact that our current Commander in Chief has been blessed with a pronounced set of ears, but Obama gourds seemed to rule the field this season. In fact, this was the most gourds we’ve had displayed since Lyndon Johnson and his prominent proboscis left office.

Marge Lehrer was to make a grand entrance with her Sarah Palin pumpkin then at the last minute decided to withdraw her entry. Then recanted and decided to bring it but at finally dropped the pumpkin from the race.

Word around town has it that there were a large number of Chris Christie pumpkins being readied for the bazaar. Being of portly frame myself I was not happy to hear this and was thus relieved when the full-sized governor dropped out of the race since he’s the first presidential candidate in years that appealed a bit to both Herb and I.

They always put the Famous Heads exhibit right by the front door to draw folks in off the street and this year the practice proved somewhat of a disaster. The Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney entries were sitting side by side and when the wind blew in the door their labels went flying. No one at the bazaar could figure out which was which.

Matt Simmons insisted on placing his Ron Paul cucumber on the far side of the room, far away from the rest of the produce so when the judges came by they missed him entirely.

I’m never sure whether the folks who bring in these so-called likenesses are supporters of the candidates or if they mean to detract from the famous figures’ reputation. Two ladies brought in opposing Michele Bachmann vegetables, one a gourd and the other a tomato. I didn’t vote for either of these Bachmann’s. It seemed like whenever someone turned the gourd or tomato around it would resemble something else.

Frankly, the whole thing made me yearn for the days of Hubert Humphrey. Happy Hubert was so easy to depict in produce. We just don’t get the quality of rotund presidential candidates that we used to. (See “Christie,” above.) Then there’s a whole string of presidents whose facial features simply aren’t distinctive enough to find in any pumpkin patch. I never saw a Kennedy squash or a Carter kumquat. Charlie Ervin once brought a dandy Bob Dole eggplant but by the end of the bazaar it had flattened out on the bottom – a real disappointment.

The winner this year was somewhat of a fluke. The judges spent a good many minutes considering the various entries and we all supposed that it would come down to either the Obama gourd and the Romney rutabaga, but some joker had sneakily slapped a label on a row on nondescript potatoes and that entry won. He’d labeled it simply, “Congress.”

You ever in Poosey, stop by. We may not answer the door but you’ll enjoy the trip.