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I Clearwater Sails Into The Heights Oct. 23:Get Ready For A Visit By The G reat Pum pkiniiiBY LIZ KOCHYou don%u2019t hear much about pumpkins for 11 months of the year. But as the harvest moon hangs round and orange and the kids start bringing home Dracula fangs and mummy wrappings, the pumpkin %u2014 that bulbous orange fall harvest %u2014 has its day. Pumpkins and Halloween go together like professional wrestling and Hulk Hogan (a popular choice for costuming last Halloween); one could exist without the other, but there wouldn%u2019t be much use for it. Sure, you could always bake a pie out of a pumpkin, but pumpkins exist to have ragged smiles carved into their faces and candlelight glow through their eyes on Halloween.Pumpkins are not a big harvest in Brooklyn, so for the 15th year running, they%u2019ll be sailed from Albany aboard the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater %u2014 giving the kids a healthy dose of river lore as they crawl through the 15-ton cargo searching for the perfect jack-o-lantern starter set. Education is important during the pumpkin festival in Brooklyn %u2014 but pumpkins are the point.The importance of the pumpkins is not to be contested. %u201cPeanuts%u201d cartoon character Linus spent every October crouched in his pumpkin patch awaiting the arrival of the Great Pumpkin, who according to Linas%u2019 imagination, soared through the air visiting pumpkin patches of a high caliber. There, where the pumpkins were the greatest and the most beautiful, the Great Pumpkin would land, leaving oodles of gifts as a sign of appreciation.Appreciation for this charismatic melon travels back to antiquity. The ancient Chinese honored the fruit as a symbol of longevity. Over the years its round, thick skinned and hollowed form has adapted the pumpkin for many practical purposes. MORE THAN 50 TONSAs part of a long tradition of honoring the pumpkin, the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater will launch its 15th annual Pumpkin Sail from Albany, New York on Oct. 12, bringing a cargo of more than 50 tons of pumpkins down the Hudson River. With planned stops at 16 ports, the sloop, modeled after a 19th century cargo vessel will drop its anchor at Fulton Ferry in Brooklyn on Oct. 23, where pumpkins ranging in size from the petite to the monstrous will be on sale for Halloween.According to the event%u2019s organizers, the pumpkin aspect of the sail is only one portion of a multi-faceted event that seeks to combine pumpkin fun with environmental awareness; and Hudson River education, with music and performances. The 106 ft. Clearwater Sloop is the brainchild of folk singer Peter Seeger, who 15 years ago recognized the need to preserve the Hudson River and increase people%u2019s awareness of its resources. Since that time the Sloop has traveled up and down the river as a floating natural sciences classroom, teaching school children about life on and in the river.%u201cMost obviously, the pumpkin sail teaches young people how the river was once a transport route,%u201d Abigail Robin from Clearwater explains. %u201cToday, the cargo will be pumpkins, but the traveling is the same,%u201d she adds.PUMPKIN DEFINES CULTUREThe environmental focus of the group finds its direct parallel in the pumpkin.%u201cThe pumpkin is a very important fruit used in many different cultures that make up this country,%u201d Robin explains. %u201cThese people have shown that the pumpkin can be used and reused. It shows how to recycle and preserve,%u201d she adds.As part of practical uses for the fruit, she points out that when 17th Century blue laws decret 1 that men must wear their hah short, iialt-pumpkins were used to assistu m ucu u u io jji aC aiC V uig waiC pTOpCTrounded look. Europeans who landed at Plymouth Rock were instructed by the native Americans on how to grow pumpkins for food. Cliff dwelling indians used dried pumpkins as bottles and receptacles and usS o m e p u m p k in s h o p p e rs at th e C le a rw a te r visit last O c to b e r. (P h o e n ix P h o to )ed the dried stems for stoppers.%u201cThis is more than just pumpkins and music,%u201d Steve Stame, education director of Clearwater stresses. %u201cIt%u2019s part of our effort to educate people to clean up the Hudson River and New York Harbor,%u201d he explains.To achieve this end, the Pumpkin Sail includes an extensive education effort that, according to Stame, is more accessible to the children because of the atmosphere of fun. At the environmental displays, crabs, eels, a variety of fish and other natives of the New York harbor will be set up in aquariums. For the second consecutive year, the displays will include microscopesfor close up viewing of plankton.%u201cWe will also be projecting the images of the plankton on white walls where they look like monsters,%u201d Stame explains. %u201cThe whole purpose is to do it in an atmosphere of fun. Some kids have never felt a fish from New York Harbor before or anywhere. There will be elements of formal education,%u201d he added.Less formal that day will be the music and performances. Festival goers can join the crew and performers in singing folk songs and old sea chanteys or listen to the tales of the rver. The Arm of the Sea Players will perform estuary tales appearing before their audience as giant puppets and speaking in the voice of old fishermen. Children can meet larger-than-life river characters such as Tommy Tomcod and Sarah the Striper. On Oct. 23 an evening concert by the Clearwater crew and special guests will be held at Speakeasy%u2019s in Manhattan at 8:30pm.With the Clearwater Sloop visiting 16 ports on its 150 mile journey down the Hudson, the group of environmentalists are also seeking to show the unity of the Hudson River Valley. In a special feature of the pumpkin sail, gifts from one town to the next will be transported aboard the Clearwater as a symbol that the Hudson ties the mountains to the sea as well as the towns along the shores.CHAIN OF GIFTS CREATED %u201cThe chain of gifts from community to community demonstrates the connectedness of the Hudson River Valley,%u201d says Clearwater Captain, Peg Brandon. In previous years, bottles of wine, apples, chrysanthemums, a living tree and even a piece of the Brooklyn Bridge were passed from port to port as gifts. This year the mayor of Yonkers will send a gift downriver to Borough President Howard Golden.The Pumpkin Sail is a day to go down the river. The lure of the river is enhanced by the lure of mounds of orange pumpkins. It is a day for believing, as the Clearwater is transformed into a cargo vessel, recreating the role of 19th century sloops that carried timber, bricks and produce from up river ports to urban markets. And New Yorkers who may doubt that creatures really live in the waters surrounding New York City will see otherwise. And for believers of the Great Pumpkin, the day will offer New York City%u2019s largest pumpkin patch. And don%u2019t forget pumpkin pie.The Pumpkin Sail will be at Fulton Ferry on Oct. 23. The evening concert will take place at the Speakeasy, 107 McDougal St. in Manhattan. For more info on the day%u2019s events, call (914 ) 454-7673.A BROOKLYN BAG OF LOCAL TRICKS OR TREATSP o e A t S t. A n n 'sWhere else to spend Halloween eve than in a Gothic church listening to a %u201cchamber of horrors music of the dead%u201d concert, with a little Edgar Allen Poe thrown in for dramatic effect.It%u2019s all on the bill at St. Ann%u2019s church, Montague and Clinton Sts. starting at 8pm. %u201cSuitable, even fun for children,%u201d they reassure, as musicians Fred Sherry, Rolf Schulte, Toby Appel, Toby Hoffman and Emily Mitchell will perform in costume. Musical selections by Stravinsky, Schubert, Caplet and Charles Wuorinen, a living composer, will be followed by a reading of Edgar Allen Poe%u2019s classic chiller, %u201cThe Mask of the Red Death.%u201dThis presentation of the Arts at St. Ann%u2019s is part of their continuing program to broaden the appeal of classical music and remind audiences that serious music need not be too serious. Tickets for %u201cHalloween Chamber of Horrors Music of the Dead%u201d are $10. For information call 834-8794.H o r s e m a n H a u n t s P arkThe Spirit of Halloween will haunt Brooklyn%u2019s parks with a shocking series ofevents.Making his way through the borough, thel l A r o r t m o n a K o w h a IL nfog and twilight on the moors and marshes of Marine Park on Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 5pm. Marine Park's first haunted walk will feature Dracula, the Which sisters and dozens of ghouls, ghosts and other assortedspooky types, as well as apple-bobbing fun with the Swamp Monster. The party starts between 5 and 7pm at the Marine Park parking lot and Ave. U.If your courage is still intact, try going to the dusty crypt of the Prison Ship Martyr%u2019s Monument in Fort Greene Park, Thursday, Oct. 30 at 5pm. The fog will wrap around the base of the trees, and hidden in the mist may be a few haunting surprises from the Marine Park Swamp, along with more Halloween fun. Travel between 5 and 7pm to the top of the park between DeKalb and Myrtle Aves. and Washington and Cumberland Sts. For more information on these two events, call 965-8917.St. M a r y 's H o s ts P a ra d eAll the ghosts and goblins won%u2019t be confined to the park this year as several activities are planned at a variety of Brooklyn haunts.St. Mary of the Sea Home/School Association will hold its annual Halloween Parade on October 26. All children arewelcome to participate. Meet in costume at the schoolyard on Nelson and Court Streets at 1.30pm. Santa Claus will make a guest appearance to give out candy.The Park Slope Civic Council will hold its parade on Halloween starting at 6:30pm at the 3rd .Strec and Prospect Park West entrance to the Park. Bill Cosby will be the( J f n n r l I\\/f %u2022 j r c K n l %u00bb%u00bbnrl f K o r n x ir ill K o o i v i r o H nof antique cars, floats, marching bands, and children of all ages dressed in their Halloween costumes. The parade will go north along Prospect Park West to Garfield Place, where it will turn down to SeventhAvenue. It will go along the Avenue, with the very young children joining the parade at PS 321 on 1st Street, and continue on to 9th Street, where it will wind through the streets of the South Slope to 12th Street and Prospect Park.At the Park, there will be square dancing, and a bonfire is scheduled, pending approval by the Fire Department. For further information, call 788-5862.T a k e A H a u n t e d W a lkFor the kid in all of us, who is thrilled by legends of ghoulies and ghosties and longleggety beasties, the Prospect Park Administrator%u2019s Office will hold its fall %u201cHalloween Festival 1986%u201d on October 25, 12-3pm in the Nethermead. The annual fair will have a number of activities which can be enjoyed by both children and adults.Ray Wigg irs, of the Park Administrator%u2019s Office, says that the festival is %u201cprobably the one most popular event in the Park,%u201d and several thousand visitors are expected. On the Haunted Walk, a 20 minute trapse through the ravine, a ranger dressed as the Headless Horseman will ride past the group. There will also be other ghastly interruptions by rangers disguised as the traditional Halloween nu nagerie of creatures. The festival w %u2019 tlso have a imm-camival with refreshments, apple bobK i n g o n r i TV> <1,^f i n < V.oNethermead, use the Park entrances at Prospect Park West and 9th Street, and Flatbush Avenue and Empire Boulevard, then follow the signs. The party is free. For further information, call 788-00*55.O cto b er 16, 1986, TH E P H O E N IX , Page 19