Your 2009 Pumpkin Champion

With 86% of the precincts reported we can now declare a winner of the 2009 WeirdNazareth.com Pumpkin Carving Contest. Congratulations to Tracey Bellocchio of Nazareth, Pa.

Tracey's spider pumpkin was carried by a strong local turnout of young white chiroptophobes and minority arachnologists. The economy didn't hurt either. Exit polling showed that the predominant topic on voters' minds was the volatile global price of curcurbita futures.

Voter turnout was excellent with over 300 votes! The breakdown of the four finalists was as follows:

Tracey Bellocchio's Spider Pumpkin: 44%; Ben Does/Chris Polles' Pumpkins Partied Too Hard: 37%; Barry Huston's Three Pumpkin Set 15%; The Duffy Family's Bloody Bat 3%.

Congratulations to all the finalists and excellent job to all the enties. You can see a pic of all the entries in the slideshow below.



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Vote Now for your Favorite Pumpkin!

The deadline for submissions to the pumpkin carving contest has passed. Thanks to everyone that submitted an entry. The voting is now open. Remember, you are choosing the pumpkin that will represent you for an entire year. Please take this seriously. Put the partisan nonsense behind you and do the right thing. CLICK HERE TO VOTE

Welcome, welcome. Step into the booth. You can close the curtain behind you by
pulling that big lever. No, that one...the big one. Put your weight into it.
Good. Now, just choose your favorite pumpkin by clicking the little button and
clicking submit. Good. No, you have to pull the lever back the other way in
order to register your vote and open the curtain. Have you ever voted before?
No, you don't have to worry about chads this year. It's all electronic. OK,
good. You're all done. Have a nice day. Please, you're holding up the line.
Please keep moving.

Should the reigning winner become unable to serve for any reason (e.g. assassination, rotting, etc.) the second place pumpkin will step in. Polls close Nov. 9.

Nazareth Halloween Parade (2009)

The Halloween parade was today and was great. It started to rain just before we got to see the 3rd division. We had to get the baby home so we missed the end. Here are photos I took from my perch on the YMCA steps:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Old Car at Jacobsburg

Here is a fairly well-known Jacobsburg oddity that we haven't been able to find a lot of back story on. Not too far from the creek, in the Eastern most part of the park, there is a very old decaying automobile in the middle of the woods. I first discovered this in the early '90's when I first started coming to the park and haven't seen it since. So I decided to take a trip over there to snap some photos.

I surprised myself by finding the car so quickly after all these years. It's not difficult to find. In fact, on a sunny day you can see it from the main trail (Blue blazed; Henry's Woods Trail; just past the bridge) because the sun reflects off of the chrome bumper. It has decomposed quite a bit since I remember and has become covered in etchings from various visitors over the years. I didn't notice any that were older than the late '90's but it may be that the older ones have rusted over.

I wanted to try and get some clues as to the kind of vehicle it is, how long its been there, and how it got there. There was a marking on the engine block that said "Firing Order 18736542." From the little I know about cars I knew that this only told me it is an 8 cylinder (it had eight digits) and told me noting about the model or age. On the front bumper, there was a hand painted code that read "N4046.614W07517.189." At first I thought this may be something like the magic numbers in the TV show LOST. But after I stared at it long enough I realized that these might be coordinates. After a quick Google search I confirmed that Jacobsburg park is located at N4046 and that these are the waypoints for the vehicle and that geocachers may be using this as a stash point. Based on what I had gathered I found nothing to suggest the model or year of the car. Best guess is 1950's or early 1960's model.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

As far as how it got there, it clearly made its way down the embankment from the main trail area and smashed into a tree. The front bumper is bent around the tree. I saw no clear path from the main trail to the resting spot; it was littered with old growth trees. Also, the forest floor was pretty deep around the wheels. This suggests that the car has been there quite a long time. I might guess 30 or 40 years...maybe 50.

It's a pretty interesting juxtaposition of nature and machine to see a car in the middle of the woods. So if you have the means go check it out. Surely, there is someone reading this that has more information about this automobile and what its story is. So drop us a line at weirdnazareth@hotmail.com

Scarecrows at Center Square

Autumn is in the air. And that means that it is time for some of the local Girl Scouts to make one final attempt to rid Nazareth circle of those annoying crows before Winter. This year's group of scarecrows are particularly creative...Scuba Sue, Hippy Chick, and even a public-service-message regarding the H1N1 virus. They're all really good.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

As I was taking some of the pictures I noticed a group of girls and their group leader engrossed in a discussion about the bet place in the circle to put their scarecrow. Everyone had an opinion: it should face a stop sign, it should be near the mail boxes, it should face the church... It was interesting to see the amount of thought that the girls put into not only the design of the scarecrow, but the placement of the scarecrow within the circle.


Hey, don't forget to snap a photo of your Jack-o-lantern and e-mail it to us for our Contest!

Spooky Trees of Nazareth: The Horror!

October has arrived and with it the scarecows, pumpkins and skeletal decorations that bring the fun of the Halloween season into our fair town. Not only the children but many adults enjoy going around to have a look at what their clever or funny neighbors have come up with this time.

Lately, however, we at Weird Nazareth have noticed some outdoor alterations whose nature seems uncertain. Beautifully growing trees around town have been hacked into grotesque and mutilated trunks with stunted branches allowed to protrude here and there, bereft of leaves that might soon have glowed with autumn color.

We can only assume that their owners or pruners are creating a new kind of Halloween art--the Horror Tree, in imitation of the dead and rotting trees we often see in horror films or Halloween art, often with ravens or vultures perched on what remains of their branches!




















Or perhaps it's some kind of art fad, in which people express their existential angst through the form of the trees on their properties, giving voice to their horror at life's vicissitudes, deforming the trees as they feel their lives have been deformed beyond their control, as if Edvard Munch had pruned trees instead of painting The Scream.

Whatever the cause, we hope everyone will take time to observe these creations, for people have sacrificed their magnificent trees, rebelling against all rules of good pruning, in order to present you with these stunted and twisted roosts for the darker birds of the town.
[vultures in these photos added for effect]

Gracedale Hauntings Part 2: The Red Headed Nurse

Last week we posted a story Scott Moro told us about some strange goings-on at Gracedale. Here is another of Scott's tales...

Part 2: The Red Headed Nurse

Scott: During the summer of ’93, in the North West 2 wing, the regular staff I worked with was in and out on vacation, so there were times when new or substitute nurses and aides were working the same shifts as me. There were one or two regulars, along with me and one or two subs...People I didn’t know. As I was making my bed-time rounds, I saw a red-headed nurse pass me and go into a linen supply closet. There was definitely nothing out of the ordinary about this. Many times residents wanted another blanket or socks for their feet. What was unusual was the fact that the red-headed nurse was wearing one of those “old – fashioned,” white nurse’s hats. I didn’t think anything of it and continued to make my rounds throughout the floor.

When I got back to the nurse’s station, I asked Linda, the RN on the floor, and one of the regulars, “Who’s the new nurse?” She looked at me, kind of strangely and said, “which one,” thinking I’d meant one of the substitute aides. I repeated my question, this time saying, “The red-headed one, ya know, the one with the old-fashioned hat?” This time, instead of a look at me, she turned to another regular, another nurse named Linda, and they kind of smirked at one another.

Thinking I’d missed out on the inside joke, I said, “What? What’s so funny?”

Both Lindas looked at me and said, “So, you’ve seen her.”

At this point, I was getting pissed and replied that “yeah, I’d seen her, so what.” She works there, just like us. I wanted to know what her name was so I could say hello and introduce myself. The red-headed nurse did seem a bit odd, especially with her style of dress, but it didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

Well, as it turns out, the red-headed nurse that disappeared into the linen closet was not a new Gracedale employee. In fact, she was hired nearly than 40 years before. She was one of the original nurses to work the floor in the 1950’s...and had passed away quite a few years before I saw her. Her spirit “hangs around” the North West 2 wing and what I’d encountered was a ghost!

Pumpkin Carving Contest

How would you like to win a super terrific WeirdNazareth.com T-shirt? I know, I know. Stop jumping up and down and listen for a minute. We are having a pumpkin carving contest and it is really easy to enter. You’re probably already carving a pumpkin for Halloween, right? Well all you have to do is take a photograph of it and send it to us and if it’s good enough you might win a T-shirt. Why are you jumping around again? The WeirdNazareth.com T-shirt is made of real fabric and has a spiffy silk-screened logo on the front. Each WeirdNazareth.com T-shirt is hand printed by our founder in his basement.

Information and Rules:

How to Enter:
To enter, take a photo of your pumpkin and e-mail it to us at weirdnazareth@hotmail.com. You can send us the photo itself as an attachment or a link to the photo on a photo-hosting site (Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, etc.) We would prefer a link, but whatever works for you works for us. When you e-mail us, please tell us your name (at least your first and last intial; privacy will be respected) and the town that you live in. If you want to tell us a little about your pumpkin we would love to hear it. If you're feeling saucy, you can cronical it for the Maker Diaries.

The Weird Nazareth staff and our families will sort through all the entries and determine 4 finalists. The 4 finalists will then be posted on weirdnazareth.com and our readers will vote for the best pumpkin. After the contest is over, we will fawn over the winner and post a slide show of all the losers' entries.

Rules:
1) Your photo must be of a real pumpkin or some sort of pumpkin-like vegetable.
2) You do not have to be a Nazareth resident to enter the contest. You can be from anywhere in the whole world. Even Easton.
3) You must be of legal pumpkin carving age to enter.
4) By submitting a photo for the contest you are allowing us to use the photo to post on our sites, on our Facebook page, etc.
5) If you become a finalist, we will post your name (first name only) and town. We won’t post your last name if you don’t want us to.
6) Your pumpkin does not have to be carved, per se. It can be painted or sculpted or whatever. Basically, although we’re calling it a pumpkin “carving” contest it’s really a “creative pumpkin” contest.
7) No cheating. At weirdnazareth.com we’re fairly computer savvy. If you try to use a photo you found from a Google images search we’ll probably be able to tell.
8) You can submit as many pumpkins as you want. So you can create some really interesting in-family squabbles if you wanted.
9) If needed, you can submit multiple photos of the same pumpkin (different angles, etc.)
10) The rules above are very loose. Feel free to bend them.

Prizes:

The 4 finalists will all get a WeirdNazareth.com T-shirt that is printed on whatever color shirt you want (assuming that the color has already been invented and exists at Target). It can be whatever size you need. In other words, I won’t be printing the shirts until we find out who won.

The ultimate, grand prize, first-place winner will also get a one-of-a-kind WeirdNazareth.com Pumpkin Carving Winner trophy that will look awesome in your cubicle at work next to your Dwight Schrute bobble-head doll.

What are you waiting for?

Gracedale Haunting Part 1: Myrtle's TV

We’ve heard about some strange goings-on in the buildings at Gracedale, Northampton County’s nursing home. A few months ago we got to hear about Scott Moro’s personal experiences while working at Gracedale during college in the early 1990’s.

Between 1991 and 1993, Scott was going to college at Moravian and working at Gracedale to earn some gas and spending money. His job was a “Special Services Helper”, which basically meant he fed the residents who could not feed themselves and transport residents throughout Gracedale. While the first few weeks Scott spent his time wherever needed he eventually got assigned to the North West 2 wing which is in the oldest part of the building.

Scott liked the nurses and nurse’s aides he worked & as he got to know each one better they began to share stories with him, many of which dealt with strange occurrences: strange noises, shadow-like figures, mysteriously misplaced or moving objects. So for the start of the Halloween season we thought it was time to share some of them on WeirdNazareth.com.

Part 1: Mytle’s Television

Scott Moro: One night, just after Christmas in ’91, I was doing the normal feeding and moving of residents. It was well after dinner and getting to be bed time. Bed time at Gracedale was very quiet. TV’s were off, radios off. It was as silent as silent could be. Well, I tucked in an elderly woman named Myrtle. She was a rather large woman, as were most on the floor and had little to no mobility. The head of her bed was propped like normal, which made it more comfortable for her. As I finished with Myrtle, I made my way down the rest of the hall, following the same tucking routine. Upon making my way back towards the nurse’s station so I could gather my things to go home, I heard a TV playing. Shocked, as this was extremely abnormal, I looked to see where it was coming from. It was coming from Myrtle’s room.

Confused, I walked in to see if Myrtle was awake and needed anything. She was sound asleep, as was her roommate, who was across the room and who did NOT have a TV. This was obviously a strange occurrence for a number of reasons: 1.) Myrtle could NOT move on her own, she needed someone to reach the remote control or a book or anything. 2.) The table where the remote was located was tucked against the wall, about 5 feet BEHIND Myrtle’s bed!

I switched off the TV and left the room, figuring I either didn’t turn off the TV completely the last time I was in the room or someone in a nearby room had used their remote and somehow the signal worked on Myrtle’s TV too. It’s not abnormal for garage door remote, TV remotes or other electronic devices to have this ability, so I didn’t think anything of it...EXCEPT that for the next three nights, at exactly the same time, in the exact same room, the same thing happened!

After the 3rd night, I shared the experience with my friends at the nurse’s station. They shook their heads and one of the aides, Eva, told a story about how she experienced something similar a few years back. They had electricians come in to check the wiring. Myrtle’s family was notified that maybe her TV was on the fritz and they may need to purchase another one.

A year went by, and I continued to do my job on North West 2 wing, without incident. No other TV issues, not from Myrtle’s room, not from any other room. We just laughed and shook it off as a weird electrical thing. Right after Christmas in ’92, however, on the same dates in late December...what happened in Myrtle’s room in ’91, happened again! This time, Eva was with me! We just stared at each other and then bolted back to the nurse’s station to share our experience. The others were amazed!

The women tried to see if there was something with the room, or a former resident who stayed there. Nothing. It was amazingly strange...and cool. Again we thought that there was something with the TV. We played with wires, cables, plugs and outlets. Nothing. Someone commented that maybe another resident’s remote was causing the trouble, just as I’d thought a year before. So we searched each room, only to realize, no other residents in Myrtle’s wing had a TV!!! She was one of the wealthier residents, who had a larger room and a cable hook-up. Other residents had TV’s on that floor, but nowhere near this room and none with a mega-powerful remote control.

To this day, I have no idea what happened, how it happened, or why it happened, but the women I worked with and I are convinced, it was paranormal.

Swine Flu Crosses Kingdom Lines

Apparently, the "swine flu" virus is no longer just a problem for those of us in kingdom Anamalia; it has crossed into kingdom Plantae. And Nazareth is ground zero. This tree was spotted in Black Rock woods. It clearly has been infected because its ground roots look just like a pig's head.

Hot Air Balloon Landing @ NAHS

As I was walking around town this evening I noticed a balloon in the air. As I got closer to the high school the balloon began to descend and eventually landed in the parking lot. It drew a large crowd from the nearby neighborhood and the kids were especially excited.

If you are interested in knowing how a hot air balloon works click here.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

More on Newburg Inn Hauntings and the CLPS

I'd like to start off by apologizing for the glut of "ghost" posts on WeirdNazareth.com lately. I realize not everyone is a fan. But that's just how the ball is bouncing right now. Anyway, as we, and the Express Times, posted earlier this month, a local paranormal investigation team, the City Lights Paranormal Investigation Society, surveyed the Newburg Inn. Now they've posted the result on their website here.

According to their summary they checked electromagnetic fields, temperature, and made audio recordings. Their conclusion is "Yes, the Newburg Inn is HAUNTED!!!"

I am just now discovering this group and their website. Their website is well organized and includes photos, text, upcoming events, and best of all, audio clips. Some of the investigation photos are a little disappointing as I find them too small and too dark to really see anything. But overall, it is a great site and worth checking out.

On their upcoming events schedule they have two events that Nazareth area folks may be interested in. First is an open discussion at the aforementioned Newburg Inn on Sept. 20 from 4-6pm. The second is a meet & greet at the Nazareth Library on Sept. 22 from 6-7:45pm.

We're excited to see what the CLPS has in store. And we hope they are able to cover some more Nazareth area locales. Please check out their site.