Just as darkness descends on Halloween night, John Bradley and friends will light more than 200 jack-o’-lanterns on the Patchin Mills Bridge in Pine Plains. For three nights, visitors to the decades-old Francis Ada Patchin Bradley’s Annual Pumpkin Carve will drive their cars ever so slowly over the bridge, taking in a ghoulish array of illuminated gourds.
The display is a labor of love, requiring hundreds of pumpkins, countless hours of carving, and a fresh supply of candles each evening.
“We light up 10-hour votive candles,” said Bradley, “and the following night we put in new ones and light them again, and then again on the third night.”
His friend and collaborator, Chrissy Clarke, has her own Halloween ritual: walking along the bridge, greeting passing motorists, and handing out candy to children in their cars.
For Bradley, a lifelong Pine Plains resident, the tradition is deeply personal. His family’s ties to the town date to 1844, when his great-grandfather, Mark Patchin, arrived to refurbish what became the Patchin Mill. In 1993, Bradley revived a custom his mother remembered from years earlier.
“My mom had mentioned to me that she and a bunch of students used to get pumpkins and decorate the bridge. That year, my dad died, and to get her mind off it, I thought it would be nice to do this again on the bridge. So I got 40 pumpkins.”
What began with those 40 pumpkins has grown into one of Pine Plains’ Halloween traditions. The Herald celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2023, and local filmmaker Stan Hirson made a mini-documentary about the event just before its 20th anniversary.
Bradley has kept it going through the years, even after his mother died in 2009. He now carries on the tradition in memory of both parents.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s part of me,” he said.
And a lot of work it is. Bradley began fundraising in June, collecting $175 toward the cost of the event, a fraction of what it takes to put on the display. In recent years, he has spent as much as $1,200 on pumpkins alone, not counting the candles and other supplies. This year, he found a better deal, purchasing 217 pumpkins from Willow Brook Farm in Millerton.
“I don’t think they understood how important their help was,” Clarke said.
Buying the pumpkins, however, was only half the challenge. Getting them to Pine Plains proved to be an adventure of its own.
Clarke loaded as many as she could into her Honda CR-V, filling the cargo area, back seat, and floor before making the slow climb over Winchell Mountain Road with her hazard lights flashing.
“I don’t think my car would have taken another heavy load,” she recalled.
Fortunately, a request on Facebook turned up a friend with a large pickup truck, who helped Clarke complete the delivery.
The pumpkins now sit in Bradley’s yard, awaiting their transformation. On Sunday, Oct. 25, he will cut off their tops, and volunteers can begin carving. Those who prefer to work at home are welcome to take a pumpkin or two and return their finished creations. Bradley will post updates on the event’s Facebook page.
By early Halloween afternoon, the carved pumpkins will be arranged along the bridge, ready for lighting around 6:30 p.m.
For volunteers who carve at Bradley’s, the work comes with food, drink, and conversation. Clarke makes apple or pear butter to give the carvers as a thank-you, though a few have developed more particular tastes.
“I have two people who asked for my maple syrup wine instead, which is fine, though they’ll have to wait for that.”
On Halloween night, she also prepares a lasagna-style baked ziti, setting it out on a picnic table near the falls, along with soda and hot chocolate, “for anyone who wants it.”
But the gathering is about more than pumpkins and refreshments. For Bradley, the event brings together neighbors of all ages and talents, each contributing something to the spectacle.
“Part of the beauty,” he said, “is that we have talent from the
whole town contributing. It unites the town.”
In that spirit, Bradley has one rule for the carvers: no political themes.
Over the years, he has seen some remarkable creations, and made a few himself. He has carved three-dimensional pumpkins with faces protruding from their surfaces. One year, after receiving several unusually large pumpkins, he bolted them together with rebar and transformed them into a giant ant.
“You could sit on it,” he recalled.
The volunteer carvers, he said, “express themselves. There’s a lot of creativity.”
Once the festivities are over, the pumpkins serve one final purpose. Bradley gives some of the softening gourds to local farmers to feed their pigs and tosses others into the woods for squirrels to enjoy. By Nov. 4 or 5, the bridge is cleared, and the work is done for another year.
Yet keeping the tradition alive has become increasingly challenging. Bradley and Clarke are hoping to attract more volunteers to help with the carving and welcome financial contributions to offset the costs.
“There aren’t as many of us anymore,” Clarke said, “just a handful.”
For those planning to visit on Halloween, she has one request: Drive slowly.
And this year, Bradley and Clarke have another surprise in store, a new addition to the display that they have been discussing for years.
“We’re going to have another cultural thing go up this year — we’ve been talking about it for so long,” Clarke said.
She declined to reveal any details.
“We’ll unveil it on Saturday night.”
Anyone who wants to volunteer to carve a pumpkin, beginning Oct. 25, or contribute toward the cost of the event can contact John Bradley at 518-925-9934.