The Famous Plymouth Pumpkins

COURTESY PHOTO

The anticipation as the leaves start to change and the weather begins to chill off seems to hit everyone who is in Plymouth, New Hampshire. We all watch the Rounds Tower waiting for a color of orange to randomly appear on top one morning. Just to announce to us all, that Autumn is here and so are six week grades. 

Those two orange pumpkins have a lot of meaning around here. The whole campus and town of Plymouth count on those festive vegetables to eventually make their way to the tower. It is a tradition that everyone has become very accustomed too and somewhat excited for every year. The pumpkins are even a very known mystery to the majority of the population because no one knows how they get up there but regardless of that, everyone seems to enjoy their presence. To others these pumpkins may just mean the sign of Fall or that Halloween is coming up or that a meeting with an advisor needs to be scheduled. But to Seniors, they mean something very different.

When Mark Sousa, a Senior here at Plymouth State, was asked about how he felt about the pumpkins and what they meant to him. He said “Every year they show up and every year I wonder the process of getting them up there in the first place. But this year, all I could think about was how this might be the last time I see the pumpkins on the tower. Which is honestly kind of sad.” It seems that a lot of Seniors feel that way. Where these pumpkins might mean that this is the last fall semester for them as students. Or it may mean that leaving this place is coming sooner rather than later. But most importantly, these pumpkins signify that in a couple months the Seniors have to say goodbye to the place that they have called home for four years. 

Another Senior here at Plymouth State had a more positive look on the pumpkins When asked about this subject, Meagan Bircher explained her thoughts by saying “Even though this may be my last year, and I have to start real adulthood soon. When I saw the pumpkins this time around, I realized that no matter how much my life and the school change, this tradition of the pumpkins of Plymouth never will.” 

To everyone these pumpkins hold sentimental value and to other Seniors these pumpkins can mean that even though the clock is ticking down to graduation and that Plymouth may just be a stepping stone to our future now; the traditions and the pumpkins can always be something that stays here even though the students don’t. 

These pumpkins may just be pumpkins, but to our community they hold a lot of weight. 

When the pumpkins are put on top of that tower they mean new beginnings, bittersweet endings and a beloved tradition. The memories of the famous Plymouth pumpkins are something we can all take with us, even after we have gone.