A Park Slope dad always goes big with his Halloween pumpkins, but this year he went overboard. And he plans to do so going forward.
Brooklyn’s PARK SLOPE — Charlie Pigott didn’t want for a 1,000-pound pumpkin to be resting on his Eighth Avenue stoop, but that’s how life works sometimes.
This pumpkin is the replacement, he said.
The Corcoran Group real estate broker Pigott revealed that “the pumpkin we had initially reserved cracked, so they asked if we wanted this one.”
The Park Slope father has been bringing big pumpkins to decorate his house, close to Union Street, every fall for the past eight or so years, he said. Pigott’s stoop pumpkins are nothing new.
It’s a custom that dates back to Elizabeth, his daughtertime ,’s in Connecticut for school. During one of his trips to bring her up, Pigott noticed a large pumpkin.
Pigott remembers at the moment thinking, “Wow, look at that thing.” We must return that to Brooklyn.
Since 1885, Pigott’s family has resided in Park Slope, but four years ago, he received a tip from his son George, who now resides in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, about a pumpkin patch.
“He informed me that they were twice as large, so I said, “Fantastic! Draw them in!”
For his father to display, George had been bringing a sizable pumpkin back to Brooklyn for the past few years.
According to Pigott, the family decided to set aside one pumpkin for this year after learning that the previous one weighed 600 pounds.
Pigott questioned his son: “So, what do they have?” after discovering that their reserved pumpkin had met its maker.
His son responded by sending his father a photo of a ridiculous 1,000-pound pumpkin.
Pigott instructed his son to carry it to Brooklyn like he had done in previous years.
His son made an attempt to clarify, telling his father that he didn’t comprehend the object’s tremendous size and girth.
You cannot, Pigott recalled his son saying, “It’s too huge,” to him.
I told him, ‘No, we’ll work it out,'” Pigott recalled.
When he first saw the beast inside the U-Haul truck his son had driven up from Pennsylvania, nothing could have prepared him for its enormity.
Pigott swiftly put together a ragtag team to transport this enormous pumpkin.
Four of us, according to Pigott, “couldn’t handle it.”
Pigott called a friend who ended up bringing two of his nephews as well, bringing team pumpkin up to ten members, and then swiftly recruited a friendly building super down the block, the two guys who paint the stoop every year.
After two hours of happy struggle, with Pigott shouting, they eventually managed to get it up the stoop using furniture dollies and boards of wood “”Watch the stem!” or “push, push!” Maintain the stem! “to the group.
“In a nice way screaming,” he said.
Some recommended displaying it on the sidewalk during the conflict. Some countered by asking why not just avoid the steps altogether and walk around the front of the brownstone.
Pigott was resolute. He even gave the idea of removing a wrought-iron latch from his front gate in order to better fit his prized animal on its hay throne.
In contrast to a brownstone on a busy residential street, pumpkins this size are typically utilised in seasonal decorations at large commercial locations, such hotels, the Four Seasons, or Rockefeller Center.
An audience had assembled to support the team. According to Pigott, one young boy and his mother sat and watched the entire programme.
“According to Pigott, it started out as a communal activity before becoming a neighbourhood gathering. We had a lot of fun.”
And Pigott may now enjoy seeing members of the community scrutinise his oddly shaped pumpkin.
Many onlookers stopped to have a look while standing on the sidewalk, some asking inquiries.
One questioned, “Is it real?
You’re welcome to touch it, Pigott says.
Another person asked, “May I take a picture?
You can sit on it if you want, Pigott added, of course.
I love your pumpkin, a young neighbour who was strolling with her mother stopped to remark.
After Thanksgiving, Pigott says he intends to smash the pumpkin with an axe, possibly participating in a Sanitation Department composting event.
There is no turning back now that Pigott has experienced the life of the enormous pumpkin.
He claims that he wants to make it into an official neighbourhood event the next year and will purchase a pumpkin that is about the same size.
“It’s the neighbourhood pumpkin, everyone comes, every age,” he remarked. People are huge fans of it.”
Even notes are left asking Pigott to let them know when he intends to split it up so they won’t miss the performance.
One final small girl and her mother approached the pumpkin as the light on Eighth Avenue started to dim.
The mother told her daughter to hug the large pumpkin every night before bed since “we live two doors down.”
