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Nova Scotia

Going through some of Dad's old scrapbooks from the 1970s and 1980s, many memories seeing all the old news clips. Many old time great growers back in the day such as the Coon brothers, Ralph Dreisbach from Ohio, Bob Ford from Coasteville, PA, Edgar Van Wyck from Roland, MB. This was the time and era when biggest ruled regardless of color of specimen. Majority at the time were grey-green in color, "Hungarian Mammoth" squash. Circleville, Ohio, Half Moon Bay, CA and the Cornell Pumpkin Conest, PA were the big sites in the day. I think it was 1980 when Windsor and Half Moon Bay staged the first International Hook Up by phone comparing their official weights. The rest is history, look where we are today totally amazing! 459 lbs. then to over 2,700 lbs. today. Cheers!

5/9/2024 4:53:58 PM

Wisconsin Dells

Those scrapbooks would be so fun to see!

5/10/2024 12:57:13 AM

Bethlehem CT

I cant believe how far things have come either, I never thought we would see 1000 pounds. Yet that seems so small now, and they are still getting bigger!

5/10/2024 7:05:48 AM

Billerica,Massachusetts

no internet back then, all word of mouth and phone calls- had to wait for the few newsletters as well to come out

5/10/2024 12:41:45 PM

Nova Scotia

Yes Borer exactly writing letters and phone calls. There were no club meetings etc. I've been going through all the old boxes envelopes of everyone who ever wrote here for seeds, etc. since the 1970s. We saved everything, but time to purge as they say. Saving the special ones of course. Then along came the fax machine. I remember we used the fax machine back in the day to compare site results.

5/10/2024 5:22:36 PM

Grittyville, WA

I'd like to see some of those photos. Maybe you could upload a dozen or so? I think bigpumpkins has a good scrapbook going. Maybe the past does still have value, possibly where we came from is more important than where we are going.

5/11/2024 8:03:58 AM

Richmond, BC, Canada

About 1982 I was watching the Johnny Carson show. His guest was the world record holder of that year. My memory says it was around 500 lbs. Johnny asked the grower where he got his seeds from. The grower said "there's this guy in Nova Scotia Canada that sells seeds. His name is Howard Dill". Since there was no internet, I addressed an envelope " Howard Dill, Nova Scotia". In about a week, I recieved a letter from Howard saying that he had seeds .....for $10 ! lol. I went to a bank to buy a money order and sent it to him and I recieved the seeds another week after. That's the beginning of my obcessive giant pumpkin hobby. Could I predict that I would grow the largest pumpkin in 2023 in Canada? Definitely not but it's been some of the most fun I've ever had in my life! Wouldn't it be amazing if you still had the letter! By the way, I won the equivalent to the Howard Dill Award at an offical weighoff site in Vancouver held at the Van Dusen Gardens....278 lbs ....prettiest pumpkin.

6/1/2024 11:38:32 PM

Nova Scotia

Thanks for sharing that great memory Dave. I believe the grower on Johnny Carson then was Scott Cully from CT. He grew one at 515 lbs. And yes Van Dusen Gardens use to order seeds from us and stage a contest. Something tells me we still have your letter? So many cool ones over the years. Someone once cut out a picture of Dad, put it on the envelope and addressed it "Mr. Pumpkin Nova Scotia" and it arrived. It certainly has brought many memories over the years.

6/8/2024 7:26:43 AM

Bethlehem CT

Great story Dave, I think for many of us, this hobby was something that we have always wanted to do. In 1982 I was an eight year old kid. But even back then I can remember ordering seeds from the Henry Fields seed catalog and planting those seeds in my garden. Then dreaming of a big pumpkin all summer long just like the photo in the catalog. Most seed companies used a picture of Howard posing in the patch with a big grin on one knee with a couple orange beauties.

6/8/2024 12:36:46 PM

Whidbey Island

I dropped in to visit in the early 2000s and Howard walked out of the house, greeted me like an old friend and showed me around the patch. At the time I was lucky to grow 400# and he treated me like he might treat a WR grower. A fine man and I'm glad you've been able to go down memory lane with the old clippings and scrapbooks.

6/8/2024 8:08:15 PM

Richmond, BC, Canada

Does anyone have a list of world record holders? And does anyone know which year Scott Cully won the title?

6/26/2024 7:26:12 PM