I spent my teen years in HMB and still cringe at the thought of what the Pumpkin Festival meant to us. 363 days a year HMB was a small town and prettyeasy to live/get around in, but for that weekend it turned upside down and all roads into an LA freeway (think 405 5 merge at rush hour). I'd usually bail and spend those weekends at friends' houses "over the hill (those from peninsula know what that means)". That said, I'm sure they were great fun for those who attended.

Btw- to the OP, that is a sweet pumpkin. To your question, my condition range varies depending any number of things- era, card scarcity, eye appeal, etc. I still have a lot of raw (never sent a card in for grading), but my graded generally range 2-4 for pre-war, 5 and up for post.

Hahaha. What's better than giant pumpkins and baseball cards :). I have been to and competed in a lot of giant pumpkins competitions and held the Connecticut state record for a few years. I do hold the biggest giant tomato in Connecticut at just under 3 lbs. lol. We feed all of out giant vegetables a lot of organic material, cow crap, compost, seaweed, etc.

Leon - we need a message board category for giant pumpkins. Hahaha. Just kidding

The pumpkins brought you out!! Please be careful with your quantity of posts. You might break the software. :) I am sure a lot of collectors get nervous about grading, but to take it to phobia status, I dunno.... maybe a few.
(not I)

and Rayl- we do have an off topic section and pumpkins are perfectly acceptable to talk about there (and in this thread of course)

I wanted to say that! :mad::D