Hudson River Park party a real smash!
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Bright sun warmed the November chill. It
couldn’t have been a more beautiful Sunday
at Chelsea Waterside Park, 11th Ave and
23rd Street, when throngs of families flocked to the
second annual fall festival of pumpkin smashing
hosted by Hudson River Park.
A Chelsea mom stacked six big but shrinking
pumpkins into her shopping cart while others carted
their pumpkins in strollers or schlepped them in
Trader Joe’s bags.
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Waiting in line to smash the pumpkins.
Families from Brooklyn and Queens
joined local residents and one mother
and daughter traveled two hours from
Connecticut for this post-Halloween
fun. Baby strollers lined a park path.
Fueled by sugarcoated apple cider donuts,
parents and children patiently waited
to beat the heck out of their pumpkins.
TEQUILA MINSKY
Kids donned protective goggles and, weaponized
by metal bats, contemplated their attack. Parents
offered pointers. Then the assault against each
pumpkin, perched on a tree stump, began. A pumpkin
might go flying off, to be placed again for another
offensive. Moms’ and dads’ superior muscle
power at times was employed to bring on cracks
among the ribs and each child enjoyed as much
time as needed to mangle and squash their squash.
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Local State Senator Brad
Hoylman, right, and family
joined in the fun.
Lots of concentration, taking
aim, and with all their might
- it’s a smashing great time.
Smashed and smithereened
chards moved on to be further
pulverized by a team of volunteers.
With free apple cider and
coffee also provided, this spur
of Hudson River Park hosted
a crafts table, a leaf scavenger
hunt, and face-painting options,
while audiences, bathing
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
in sunshine, enjoyed interactive
performances by Story Pirates.
Furthermore, there is more
than one way to demolish a
pumpkin!
Cheered on and safeguarded
by Hudson River Park staff, atop a dump trunk,
kids smashed their pumpkins by the force of propelling
them from above to cement below!
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Lots of concentration, taking aim, and with
all their might — a smashing great time.
This is the second year of the smashing pumpkins
fall festival, a project of the Hudson River
Park Community Composting Program, which
maintains in the park seven organic matter/kitchen
scraps compost drop-off points between N. Moore
and W. 44th Street—available 7 a.m.-7 p.m. daily.
The Park’s Composting Center at 34th Street
mixes these collected food scraps with the Park’s
horticulture waste —a half-ton of weeds, branches,
and other plant waste daily generated by the
Park-—into reusable compost that keeps plants,
trees and shrubs healthy.
By the fest day’s end, the chopped-up pumpkin
pulp found its way to the 34th Street Composting
Center. (Last year, the fall festival collected 1000
pounds of pulp.) The festival wrapped up around
2 p m.
Amidst smiles, countless children’s faces were
artfully decorated by the time they left the park,
and all who attended could only say they had a
“smashing good time!”
Community Compost drop off points are: Pier
25 at N. Moore St. near the Pier 25 Play Area;
Pier 40 at Houston St. near the Leroy Street Dog
Park; Pier 51 at Horatio St. near the Pier 51 comfort
station; 14th Street Park at the southwest corner
of 15th St. and 10th Ave; Chelsea Waterside
Park at the 23rd St. and 11th Ave entrance; Pier 76
at 34th Street and 12th Ave in Hudson River Park’s
Compost Center; Pier 84 at W. 44th St. near the
Pier 84 Dog Park
After the composting
event,
Hudson River
Park said that a
record number
of pumpkins had
been smashed.
This year’s event
saw 1,200 people
smash 380
pumpkins, according
to the
park, which
generated over
2,000 pounds
of pumpkin for
compost, doubling
last year’s
amount.
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
There was also facepainting
at the event.
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Standing inside the bed of a dump truck,
with cheering from Hudson River Park,
kids get ready for the big propel — another
way to smash a pumpkin.
16 November 7, 2019 Schneps Media