Video thanks to Deb Borchardt
On October 30, 2011 a fun-loving group of Woodrockers gathered on the beach to chuck those large, orange, gourd-like squash into the lake. Why? I guess it's one of those activities that either makes you want to get up and start chucking... or not. The event was the brainchild of a Woodrock couple whose anonymity protects their dignity. We'll call them Chris and Deb in this article.
The range of designs of hurling devices was quite impressive. The clear chucking champ, a trebuchet built by Bill, has its roots in the 5th century and was used by the early crusaders in the second siege of Tyre in 1124. The design was so successful that it was historically the siege engine of choice until gunpowder canons were developed. Thankfully none of the Woodrockers tried gunpowder devices (this year) and the trebuchet reigned supreme one again. The winning toss not only outdistanced the competitors by three or four hundred percent, but accurately landed a small pumpkin squarely on the raft (the surrogate for the castle courtyard on the far side of the moat in this contest).
The most innovative device has no clear precedent in ancient or modern warfare. You could think of it as a teeter-totter with a center track. Now roll a pumpkin down that track and at the moment the pumpkin reaches the end, have someone (preferably not a loved one) leap off a ladder and land on the other end of the teeter-totter! OMG who could have thought of that? Once again we'll withhold the name of the inventor, but if you examine the photos below you might recognize the neighborhood warrior who could revolutionize modern squash hurling.
The battery of armament was rounded out with variants of catapults and slingshots. While all of these devices were well built and enthusiastically used, this was clearly a learning experience for most of the Woodrockers, and we'll have to delay the siege of Colabaugh Pond until we can depend on these technologies to outdistance pumpkin seed spitting.
The weather was great and the lake was framed in Saturday's early Fall snowfall and a brilliant blue sky. There was quite a nice spread of hot foods and desserts too. There were many young folks on the beach, and some took to the water in canoes to harvest the spent ammunition, and conduct some water warfare with snowballs (launched the old fashioned way). The attendees were rounded-out by a few pets who echoed the diversity of the day. You can see the meeting of an 8-week old puppy and the lake's own "polar bear puppy" below.
This was clearly an event that you had to see to believe. I hope the photos below provide some sense of the fun we all had at this unique celebration. Thanks to everyone who brought a machine, food to share, and their smiles and laughter.
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Video thanks to Deb Borchardt
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If you came to this page looking for the Fall 2009 dam repair story, click here.