My appreciation of our steadfast resolve grew this weekend as I journeyed westward to Keene for their annual Pumpkin Festival. In my conversations with the people I know over there, they downplayed the footage shown on TV. It wasn't as bad a Stoddard, where the roads melted away like sugar. Not nearly as bad as Antrim, where people died and some are still missing.

Judging by the number of people who braved the frigid, rainy October weather last Saturday to view the impressive 22,000 jack-o-lanterns, hit the craft fair and take in all the great entertainment acts of the Monadnock Region, the flooding of Keene is no longer be the biggest news story.

For those of you not farmiliar with the Keene Pumpkin Festival, it's a Halloween-themed event which brings people in by attempting to set the world record for the most jack-o-lanterns in one spot. They set the record a few years ago at over 29,000, but, as I stated earlier, didn't make it this year.

Having never been before, I was thoroughly impressed by the sizeable party thrown by the City of Keene. The food was ample and cheap, with fall festival favorites like chili, funnel cakes, cider, subs, pumpkin pie and french fries. The center square was quintisential New England, with bright foliage arching down over a white gazebo. The United Church of Christ, a city landmark, stood tall above the square, it's steeple poking through the afternoon fog. For a nerdy Yankee like me who loves fairs almost as much as I love Christmas, it was heaven.

At night, the Pumkin Fest was like a dry Mardi Gras, with kids and less nudity. College students, young punks, parents and kids wandered the streets, shoulder to shoulder, surrounded by pumkin-lined scaffolding. At the end of each street, a three-story platform filled with glowing, eerie-faced pumpkins loomed over the streets.

When my boyfriend and I arrived for the fireworks, the sqaure was packed. Thankfully, we were invited to a friend's studio for some sangria and a great view of the city. As I watched the fireworks show from a second story shopfront, drink in hand, I was amazed at the tenacity of Keene's residents. Despite the driving rain, people stayed, watched and applauded.

Walking home after it was all over, the whole event seemed sort of sad. The streets, once filled with cute little kids in coustumes were now empty, wet and runny, like everything has been for a million years. The jack-o-lantern that I had so loveling carved on a leaf-littered porch earlier in the day, was gone, likely smashed into a million pieces and lying in the gutter with the rest of the Pumpkin Fest refuse.

All melancholy aside, I thought the Pumpkin Fest was a blast. The jack-o-lanterns were so creative, the scenery beautiful and the beer amazingly cheap. (At one bar, I paid $3 for two pints of Newcastle, no joke!)

I guess what really made it for me was Keene's sense of community, the feeling that the day was the most important day of the year and it was all about getting together and having fun. Perhaps the Portsmouth Halloween Parade comes close, but it's so brief and so few people actually particiapte, comparatively speaking. Market Square Day doesn't have it, either, viewed by most as a nuisance which takes revenue from regular downtown businesses and diverts it to vendors. Seldom do I hear people refer to it as a day when people should just get together, hang out, grab a plate from Mr. India or what have you. There are a number of new events that have popped up over the years, but none of them seemed to have that tight-knit community feel they had in Keene.