Pumpkin event grows into a tradition

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Forget Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter or the Fourth of July, when it comes to having a get-together &8212; Betty and Travis Hannah do it up right for Halloween.

Known to family and friends as &8220;Big Momma&8221; and &8220;Old Man,&8221; the couple started a Halloween tradition that has matured into a full-blown event.

The seeds of event&8217;s origins lay in the mind of the couple&8217;s grandson, Bobby. According to Hannah, when Bobby was little he wanted to go out and have a hunt for &8220;The Great Pumpkin.&8221; The couple planted a pumpkin patch across the drive from their house to accommodate the young man&8217;s imagination, but inclement weather barred the idea from germinating and the crop was drown.

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From its humble origins the annual pumpkin hunt has grown into quite an event for family, friends and neighbors of the couple.

The event has gotten so big that sometimes Hannah doesn&8217;t even know some of the kids that show up for the festivities.

According to Hannah the couple had between 50 and 60 pumpkins this year to make sure that every child went home with one.

Not to make it too difficult for the children to find their prize, Hannah says that the pumpkins aren&8217;t hard to find in the daylight but darkness adds a little more difficulty.

As big as the event has become the Hannahs have had to start splitting the children by age into two groups.

Not letting the children have all the fun, the parents also get to let loose at the gathering when the older children go on their hayride.

Keeping with the Halloween theme, the refreshments at the get together are pretty nasty and gruesome.

According to Hannah, the boogers on a stick are just pretzels with colored CheezWiz on top.

In the end, Hannah says it is all to show the kids a good time, of course she says she has a pretty good time doing it too.