Dirdy pumkins

To the editor: The free pumpkins given away to all Estes Park school children by local merchants and service organizations prior to Halloween is indeed a long tradition, and one worthy of commemoration and praise.

The most recent article in the Estes Park Blues mentions the tradition dates back to 1936 and Ron Brodie. I would contend that while Brodie Bros. did indeed start their grocery business in Estes Park in early 1936, there is no evidence the free pumpkin giveaway dates back to the first year of their arrival. Search of Estes Park newspapers from 1908 forward using the key word "pumpkin" or "pumpkins" uncovers an advertised Brodie Bros. pumpkin giveaway to the kids in the fall of 1940. Obviously, provision of the derivative pumpkin PIE as a freebie and cause for celebration extends back well before this in Colorado history, but the actual pumpkin as an object being given away for purposes of carving (or decoration or throwing or otherwise) seems to be mentioned no earlier than 1940. If Rotary club members or any other local historians or pumpkin buffs have evidence Ron Brodie gave away pumpkins prior to this (in Lyons, for example, where he came from, or out of the back of his truck on a visit to Estes Park), it would be most welcome, as this is a subject that comes up every year at this time, and exhaustive searches of Brodie Bros. advertisements, Ron Brodie, or related local and statewide newspaper articles prior to 1940 turns up nothing related to a free pumpkin giveaway in Estes Park or elsewhere, although, to be fair, the 1940 mention in no way states "This is our first time doing this, we've never done such a crazy thing before", so it is certainly possible pumpkins were given away without any advertisement or coverage in 1939, for example. The problem I have with saying there was potentially a "secret" giveaway in 1938 or 1939, though, is that in the absence of accurately dated photographs or letters or some other primary source material providing tangible evidence of same, skeptics in the crowd might have trouble distinguishing such a "secret, unpublished" giveaway from a "didn't actually happen" giveaway. If Ron Brodie provided an oral history later in life where he directly stated "We gave away free pumpkins at Halloween from the jump", this would indeed be compelling counter testimony to my 1940 claim, although potentially no different to an unbiased jury from other oral histories impacted by imprecise questions or imperfect memories, often decades removed from an event lacking in supporting documentation. While we are on the subject, it is probably worth noting Merl Morehead (whose first name often appeared in our local newspapers as "Merle"), a competing grocer in Estes Park as early as 1939, was oftentimes (seemingly) the lone supplier of free pumpkins to the school children in the 1940s and 1950s, again, if newspaper mentions from the time were accurate and reliable.