THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9410280237
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
When it comes to growing pumpkins, nothing beats beginner's luck.
Just ask Thomas Tye and his 5-year-old son, Russell.
The Tyes planted some seeds in May in the their 10,000-square-foot garden plot. Tye said he obtained the ``Atlantic Giant'' pumpkin seeds from a mail order seed company based in New York.
Those seeds were well-named.
Tye said the effort yielded about 12 pumpkins with an average weight of 70 pounds each. But one stood out.
``One was huge,'' he said. ``It weighs 187 pounds.''
With such a gargantuan gourd, Tye entered the Virginia State Fair pumpkin competition, winning third place for the entire state.
Not bad for an amateur.
Tye said the winner and second place finisher were both commercial growers entering Godzilla-sized pumpkins of 363 pounds and 220 pounds, respectively.
So what was the secret to their success?
Watering the vines three times a day, adding fertilizer, fungicide, insecticide and a secret sauce, he said.
Tye finally broke down and revealed his secret: ``I got a U-Haul trailer filled with 3,000 pounds of chicken manure from a Perdue chicken grower in Suffolk,'' he said.
After the prize winner was on display in Richmond for the duration of the fair, Tye placed it on his front porch.
``We get a lot of gawkers,'' Tye said. ``They just can't believe the size. They ask all kinds of questions about it. There's a lot of interest in pumpkins at this time of year.''
The Tyes plan to use the pumpkin's meat for fresh pumpkin pie and other recipes. Several friends, relatives and neighbors all have dibs on its seeds. And then the Tyes will do the seasonal thing.
``We're going to carve the biggest jack-o'-lantern in Chesapeake,'' he said. SOLOMON SAYS, STOP!
Mayor William E. Ward, a politician with an ear for the classical, looked for inspiration last week in dealing with a Greenbrier brouhaha over traffic signs.
The signs in question are for Fairway Drive, and a line of residents paraded before the council to say: We need them. We don't need them. We need more of them.
Ward seemed torn as he took up the issue.
``As I understand it, some of you want stop signs, some of you want no stop signs, and some of you want three-way and four-way stop signs,'' Ward said.
He sighed and said, ``I don't know if Solomon could solve this one.''
Solomon, you'll recall, was the biblical king who settled a dispute between two women who claimed to be the mother of a child. He determined the truth by ordering his soldiers to cut the child in half. Its true mother immediately protested, preferring to give up the child rather than see it harmed.
Perhaps remembering that story, Councilman Alan P. Krasnoff chipped in, ``Solomon could.'' Ward's eyebrows went up, and he looked around the room. ``He could? Well, Solomon's not here.''
Then the council applied its own brand of Chesapeake wisdom: They postponed the issue until residents can discuss it further among themselves. HALLOWEEN TREAT
An eye-catching sign outside the entrance to the Women's Health Center at Chesapeake General Hospital suggests that this Halloween the little ones may be getting something better than candy.
It reads: ``Trick-or-Treat. Give them something good to eat. Breast Feeding Classes. 482-6188.''
Pregnant mothers learn the benefits and techniques of breast feeding. Classes are offered at the center on the first Thursday of each month, from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The one-time class costs $15.
- Eric Feber, Tony Wharton and Patty Huang ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Russell Tye helped his father grow this prize-winning, 187-pound
pumpkin.
by CNB