Jack Frost foiled: Pumpkin patch rescued with help from friends

Despite the killing frost, kids get their pumpkins.

The entire pumpkin patch was dead, down to the last pumpkin. Gerald Wise of LaCrosse woke up the morning after a killer early October frost and surveyed the damage to his beloved patch. Some pumpkins were so mushy, you could poke a finder through the skin.

What would he do? Citizens of LaCrosse and their Halloween-happy children have relied on Wise’s pumpkin patch on Halloween for the past 15 years. Not once had his patch suffered a frost that rivaled the seven-degree nights Oct. 8 and 9 that wiped out his entire crop.

But someone was looking out for Wise.

His friend John Kirkpatrick took to the streets of LaCrosse and ended up receiving enough donations to buy all the pumpkins needed to re-stock the patch.

“I didn’t know it, but he was down there soliciting for pumpkins,” said Wise.

Kirkpatrick dropped by Wise’s house a few days later and told him to hop in the truck. He didn’t explain why until they arrived at Rosauers in Colfax where Shawn McAdams, manager, gave them a discount on pumpkins. They ended up being able to buy enough pumpkins to replace the number lost to the freeze.

“I just about fainted,” Wise said.

He has a worn, notebook page of the people who pitched in financially to save his pumpkins. Startin’s Repair. Martin Oil Company. Tom Jasper. Pioneer Telephone Company. Associated Independent Agencies, Inc. Bank of Whitman.

Wise’s patch was chock full Oct. 23 when LaCrosse children descended on the patch for their annual pick-a-pumpkin derby. The whole operation went off without a hitch, Wise said.

He added he has every intention of growing another crop next year.

“Long as I’m able,” he vowed.