The 40th anniversary passed virtually unnoticed but it was four decades ago that the legendary Pumpkinstock festival took place in Fred Yasgur’s fields. It was billed as three days of tractors, pumpkins and outhouses but it went down as an event that may never be equaled in Warner history. “I don’t remember any of it,” mused selectman Mary Hartman, “so I guess that’s proof I was there.” Vehicles were backed up on the interstate as far south as the Bedford toll booth, and most festival goers walked or hitchhiked in from as far away as Concord.
Pumpkinstock was infamous for half-clothed, euphoric bohemians hopped up on an intoxicating blend of folk music and local flora. “There was a great deal of excitement because Peter, Paul and Mary were going to be playing guitars and singing,” long-time resident Johnny B. Goode recalled. “It turned out it was Peter Paul and Mary Smith who lived up on Pumpkin Hill Road but we had a good time anyway. Pete Seeger came by and brought a battery operated record player, and he turned us on to some Woody Guthrie songs and I think he played a Burl Ives record too.”
Fred Yasgur III , whom we interviewed while sheering sheep in the family barn, was only 10 years old when his family farm was transformed into a sea of humanity. “Everyone was carving pumpkins. We had millions of them! That’s what started the jack-o-lantern craze in Warner and it’s been happening every Halloween since. I remember my mom cooking breakfast in bed for everyone. I had to keep fetching eggs from the hens. That was a busy day.”
Mary Hartman’s twin sister, Mary Hartman, remembered the event a different way. “The boys had long hippie hair and walked around all sweaty without any shirts on. Some of them tried to persuade us to go skinny dipping with them. We’d never seen anything like it in town.”
“Everything you hear about that weekend is a lie,” retired NH State Trooper Richard ‘The Brick’ Hardchest explained. “No one swam naked in the river, everyone was well behaved and there wasn’t even a drop of jimson weed on the premises. But there were plenty of delicious pumpkin pies Mrs. Yasger baked and no one went hungry. Sure, we ran out of ice cream but it was just like having 400,000 of your friends over for a 4-H meeting.”
