A Gourd Time Had by All

Showing near-perfect form--perhaps too perfect for someone who will mutate into a ghoul in less than a week--Jessica Gilchrist knocked down the plastic pins with deadly precision, pausing only to smile or to get a stronger grip on her bowling pumpkin.

Jessica, an 8-year-old Silver Strand resident, was one of the children who took part in the third annual pumpkin festival at the Channel Islands Harbor Farmer’s Market on Sunday, a daylight precursor to the darkest holiday of the year.

The event included pumpkin bowling, pumpkin painting and a balloon artist. Although significantly smaller than in the past, the pre-Halloween festival still brought smiles to the several children who attended the afternoon event.

“It’s fun for the kids to come out and see this,” said Kristen Gilchrist, who brought her two children, Jessica and Jake, 6, to the event.

But Gilchrist admitted that the pumpkin festival, and the holiday it foreshadows, are not just for children.

“I enjoy it too,” she said. “I love Halloween.”

The coastal farmer’s market began its pumpkin festival three years ago to drum up business. It has been toned down considerably since the beginning, but market organizers said the intent is the same.

“We do it for the kids and we do it for the holiday spirit,” said market manager Melinda Cheresnowsky. “It’s something for people of all ages.”

The farmer’s market, held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday, attracts local farmers and artists who sell items from fresh vegetables to paintings.

In a corner of the market, behind a small bowling area and dozens of pumpkins, the pumpkin painting table was one of the few places where children could create artwork, not just buy it.

And, of course, it was far and away the sloppiest table at the orderly event, with jack-o’-lantern grins literally dripping with thick red streams.

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“We’re trying to keep it clean, but with little kids and paint it’s pretty hard,” Cheresnowsky said. “It’s looking like it’s getting pretty messy.”

Ventura resident Georgette Gonzales, 8, said the festival was her first chance to paint a pumpkin. She took full advantage of the opportunity, coating her pumpkins with sharp white teeth and red blood, something she called the “scary” look.

Jake Gilchrist also went the scary route, turning his pumpkin into a cross between a pirate and Chucky, the grinning, animated killer doll of the current hit movie “Bride of Chucky.”

“I like painting,” Jake said with a smile.

Georgette, who usually comes to the market to help her grandmother sell sodas and painted rocks, said pumpkin decorating was only part of the fun Sunday. She said the chance to bowl over plastic pins with a pumpkin, and win a candy bar regardless of how well she did, was worthwhile.

And the pumpkin festival served as a reminder as well, she said.

“I didn’t get my costume yet,” Georgette said, adding that this year she intends to be a vampire, a devil or a cat.