Freaky Festivities and Finally a Spruce Grouse
By Grace Gargan & Anni Panici
This past week, as the winds grew colder and October decorations were put up, eleven Arcadians prepared their spooky appetites for a rustic Halloween celebration. When on campus, Halloween (generally referred to as “Halloweekend”) consists of multiple parties and costumes. However, Arcadians celebrate a bit differently…
The festivities began Friday morning as the first events of Halloweekend drew upon us. As we feasted on breakfast, conversations arose about potential costume ideas for the holiday. “Should we get makeup?” “What if we raid the community yurt for costumes?” Eggs were passed and ideas were shared as two Arcadians secretly glanced at each other.
After the meal, the secret project of Arcadians Abby and Kim was set in motion. By the afternoon, Abby was clad in Kim’s signature sweatpants and fuzzy blue sweatshirt, while Kim strutted in Abby’s eccentric rainbow sweater and orange corduroy pants. As the rest of the Arcadians greeted them in a fit of laughter, the costume idea was solidified: we were dressing up as each other. When asked about the experience in Kim’s clothes, Abby said she felt “powerful and prepared and [she] got the urge to run for Thelmo vice president.”
While not everyone exchanged clothes, Halloween creativity was exercised in another way after our Friday class: pumpkin carving. We began with eleven pumpkins graciously gathered by Assistant Director Eva Wetzel, who strapped each pumpkin into our van with seatbelts. Eva claimed that the pumpkin retrieval was “very fun and went smoothly without a hitch.” After the pumpkins successfully made it to Arcadia, we gathered knives, compost buckets, and a small bowl for seeds. With pumpkin guts flying and seeds overflowing the bowl, we created an array of spooky designs. Some were classic like Alex’s buck-toothed smiley pumpkin, while others took a modern, political stance, like Kim’s “Bravo” pumpkin (alluding to her campaign for Thelmo vice president). Some had guts spilling out of their mouths and others had stars and sharp teeth, but one thing was evidently clear: this Halloween experience reminded us of our childhoods. Arcadian Auti reflected that it was a tradition in her home to carve pumpkins each year, and doing this again brought her back to the idea of play within a tight-knit community. “As we carved pumpkins,” she remarked, “I felt like a little kid in a big family.”
As evening swooped over Arcadia, we were greeted by a musical treat: singers Tyler and Caitlin. The two musicians delighted us with covers of various folk songs, and as the final chords of Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” lifted over Arcadia, the group felt entranced and sleepy.
“Wait,” assistant director Eva Wetzel exclaimed. “What about the piñata?” That’s right! After the performance, the only thing left in store for us was a homemade and handcrafted pumpkin piñata filled with Halloween candy. We all perked up and began the process of hanging the piñata to the ceiling of the community yurt. As Director Jake McCoola impressed us with his bowline knot skills, we all waited in anticipation.
Beside the piñata lay an assortment of objects: a sweet potato, a stick, a carrot, and a shoe. “Why is there a sweet potato on the table?” Arcadian Matt questioned on behalf of the group. What we didn’t know is that what was in store for us was a rustic piñata experience. Each Arcadian was blindfolded and asked to reach into a hat to see what object they would use to swing at the pumpkin. After a couple of sweet potato whacks and carrots snapping, the papier-mâché giant finally broke open. As the pieces of candy flew across the floor, so did a suspicious bottle of Nyquil. Assistant director Will Madison giggled to himself in the corner after poking fun at the Fall cold sweeping through Arcadia.
Nyquil in tow and bellies full of Snickers and Reese’s, we slept peacefully that night (except for Arcadian Auti whose fear of ghosts was heightened by the festivities).
The festive Halloween games and traditions were not the only thing haunting Arcadia. The freaky forecast of 65 degrees during the end of October led to a fun student-led weekend trip back to the High Peaks. After perfecting the RAD plan [Editor’s note: this refers to a Route and Destinations plan] and packing a lunch, seven Arcadians woke up at an early 5 a.m. and embarked on scaling peaks Algonquin, Iroquois, and Wright. The sky was clear and the weather was pleasantly warm—a complete shift from the washout during the backpacking trip at the end of September—so the crew moved swiftly along the terrain, taking in the sights and singing familiar songs to keep people motivated. One memorable moment was when pack leader Alex stopped the group and muttered the words “spruce grouse.” This bird, endangered in New York State, is one that we’ve been learning about in our ecology class, and while we’ve been keeping our eyes open during our many field trips, it was only now among the High Peaks that we finally saw the magic of this rare creature. Each peak had mud to step in and ice to navigate, but before long the ragtag crew made it to each top, rejoicing with a leftover Halloween candy bar and a look at the stunning view.
To wrap up a weekend of spooks and scares, Sunday night’s cook crew Margo and Auti, with guest cook Elder Autumn, decided to whip up a Halloween themed dinner. Our chefs worked tirelessly in the kitchen, checking on different dishes, stringing up lights, and arranging small pumpkins on the table. As they were finishing up, it was decided that creepy face paint would be the perfect touch. At just a little past 6:30 p.m., the dinner bell rang and hungry Arcadians marched toward the kitchen, where they were met with a sign reading “Arcadian Beware, you’re in for a scare!” The meal was introduced as an array of eyeballs, brains, guts and fingernails as opposed to pickled eggs, noodles, cauliflower, and salad. The pièce de résistance—baked potatoes that looked like goblins. Sharing a quotation is a ritual of every Arcadian dinner, and Elder Autumn shared an unusual one concluding with the line, “When you go birdwatching, the birds watch back.” Everyone dug in and agreed that the meal was delicious and one that we would remember for a long time.
While this was a weekend of many frights, some might find the scariest thing of all is thinking about how our time at Arcadia is coming to a close. Anticipating the business of these final two weeks, it is important to take the time to enjoy each other’s company, wacky ideas, and endless laughs. While we did not have the traditional Halloweekend experience that one finds on campus, our time at Arcadia is treasured and out new customs and traditions are what ties us to this place and to each other. In two
weeks we will be faced with the exciting independence of our internships, but right now we are savoring the memories we are making at Arcadia, because after all, what we have here is as rare as a spruce grouse.