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Morton, Ill. —
Julie Boehler and her teammate Dena Roller spent Sunday afternoon locking, loading and firing pumpkins at a television set sitting atop a battered van as they tried to be the first to hit the elusive target.
And though their friendly competition, the Q-36 Aludium, was able to knock the target down first, the two still chuckled as they launched pumpkin after pumpkin into the air.
Boehler and Roller are members of the “Wicked Wives” pumpkin chucking team. They are the wives of the men who operate “Can’t Fix Stupid,” another air cannon designed to shoot pumpkins a long distance.
With some help from their husbands, they were operating their own cannon for the first year, but not the first time.
The “Wicked Wives” team are from Girard, where a similar competition is held every year.
“They just wanted to see us more often,” Boehler joked in reference to their husbands building the cannon for them.
Boehler said she and her female teammates love chucking pumpkins — they spent three years watching their husbands do it.
“It’s a good hillbilly way of having fun,” Boehler said. “Everybody gets to watch and laugh.”
To Boehler, friendly competition is what Punkin Chuckin’ is all about.
“Everybody gets along great,” she said. “Not everybody gets this opportunity.”
In its 14th year, the Morton competition drew onlookers from around the country, as it seems to do each time the event is held. Though the event is common knowledge in Morton and other pumpkin-appreciating towns, such as Girard, it is still a surprise to many not familiar with the pumpkin culture.
Thus, the competition receives publicity throughout the world. All the while, those who compete consider the event a hobby.
Von Leefers of the “Heads Up” team from Carlinville said the team got involved in Punkin Chuckin’ after his friends brought him to Morton to witness the event.
“A friend of us brought us up here a couple of years ago,” Leefers said.
It was then that Leefers and his fellow teammates realized this was something they could have fun doing.
The team searched Craigslist and found a cannon. From there, the “Heads Up” team has competed in several competitions.
“We just do it to have fun,” he said.
Those who take part often make mention of how “redneck” the event actually is. Pumpkin chucking competitions are typically found in farming communities and they often take place in corn fields. But, to onlookers, it is an entertaining sight to watch pumpkins whizz through the air and slam into vehicles set as targets.
Julie Boehler and her teammate Dena Roller spent Sunday afternoon locking, loading and firing pumpkins at a television set sitting atop a battered van as they tried to be the first to hit the elusive target.
And though their friendly competition, the Q-36 Aludium, was able to knock the target down first, the two still chuckled as they launched pumpkin after pumpkin into the air.
Boehler and Roller are members of the “Wicked Wives” pumpkin chucking team. They are the wives of the men who operate “Can’t Fix Stupid,” another air cannon designed to shoot pumpkins a long distance.
With some help from their husbands, they were operating their own cannon for the first year, but not the first time.
The “Wicked Wives” team are from Girard, where a similar competition is held every year.
“They just wanted to see us more often,” Boehler joked in reference to their husbands building the cannon for them.
Boehler said she and her female teammates love chucking pumpkins — they spent three years watching their husbands do it.
“It’s a good hillbilly way of having fun,” Boehler said. “Everybody gets to watch and laugh.”
To Boehler, friendly competition is what Punkin Chuckin’ is all about.
“Everybody gets along great,” she said. “Not everybody gets this opportunity.”
In its 14th year, the Morton competition drew onlookers from around the country, as it seems to do each time the event is held. Though the event is common knowledge in Morton and other pumpkin-appreciating towns, such as Girard, it is still a surprise to many not familiar with the pumpkin culture.
Thus, the competition receives publicity throughout the world. All the while, those who compete consider the event a hobby.
Von Leefers of the “Heads Up” team from Carlinville said the team got involved in Punkin Chuckin’ after his friends brought him to Morton to witness the event.
“A friend of us brought us up here a couple of years ago,” Leefers said.
It was then that Leefers and his fellow teammates realized this was something they could have fun doing.
The team searched Craigslist and found a cannon. From there, the “Heads Up” team has competed in several competitions.
“We just do it to have fun,” he said.
Those who take part often make mention of how “redneck” the event actually is. Pumpkin chucking competitions are typically found in farming communities and they often take place in corn fields. But, to onlookers, it is an entertaining sight to watch pumpkins whizz through the air and slam into vehicles set as targets.
And, when the competition is all over, participants often have fun with their machines when they return home.
“As if it is not redneck enough, we go home and start lobbing pumpkins and shoot them with shotguns,” Leefers laughed.
Once again, the Aludium Q-36 team took first place in the air cannon division. But, instead of keeping the winnings, the team donated them to an upstart team, as it does every year.
Q-36 team leader Matt Parker presented the $275 winnings to a team from Illinois State University. Parker and his team continue to make the donations to support creativity and engineering demonstrated in the construction of pumpkin chucking machines.
