With two final messages and his usual gentle antics, Pumpkin Man said good-bye to Charlotte Central School last week on Halloween. Along with the local mysterious figure’s dismissal, school principals also cancelled the annual Halloween parade, and the final time the holiday was celebrated at school had smiles, tears, and a gentle, loving message from the man of the hour.
Charlotte Central School’s resident mythical figure, Pumpkin Man, has been the center of controversy in town lately, as school principals Stephanie Sumner and Jen Roth recently announced that after this year, he will no longer be appearing at the school’s annual Halloween parade—and that in fact, this will also be the parade’s last year. In light of recent news reports claiming that Pumpkin Man wanted to retire, the man himself reached out to The Charlotte News to set the record straight and explain that he did not, in fact, want to retire after this year.
Every year since the early 90s, at the CCS Halloween celebration, students parade by grade out into the school’s back field. They gather at the far edge, uncharacteristically silent, looking expectantly at the tree line on Pease Mountain.