BLAZING IDIOTS: THE GREAT JACK O'LANTERN BLAZE, or Why I Now Detest Historic Hudson Valley

For years, my family enjoyed the local history themed events put on by Historic Hudson Valley, especially the July 4th celebration at Van Cortlandt Manor, River Days, Heritage Crafts, the Eagle Fest tie in event, etc. When the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze started, it ran a couple of weeks, and was mostly attended by locals. It has since expanded into a 6 week or more extravaganza that draws a ridiculous crowd to this Village of 8,000 people. I would bet my property taxes have gone up to cover the police overtime they have necessitated.


In the early years, it wasn't so bad. They used their own entrance road on Riverside Avenue. Now they have their cider and donut tent, complete with cheesy souveniers, and to make as much off the public as possible, they close their entrance and vector all traffic through the local supermarket parking lot and into a field where the concessions are located.

A week or two of heinous traffic, no parking availble when you shop, and people aimlessly wandering about in lanes of traffic causing a road hazard might be something that people could grin and bear, but their greed knows no bounds. It is November 7th. And yet, there are still two more weekends of this nonsense to endure, after four weeks of almost daily inconvenience.



In the past at least 3 years, they have shown ZERO consideration in their handling of the parking situation. I am tired of being endangered by the reckless stupidity of their patrons and unlawfully imprisoned (kept trapped in a parking spot and not free to leave while they make no effort whatsoever to temporarily halt the line of idiots streaming into their parking field in order to let local shoppers leave and go about their business).

Here is the review I left on HHV's facebook page, which I fully expect them to delete.


You are abyssmal neighbors. You have no consideration whatsoever for the people who live near your sites, esp. Van Cortlandt Manor. The crack team of imbeciles you have directing traffic pinned me in my handicapped parking spot and would not stop the flow of traffic, which they had vectored completely around shoprite, creating a nightmare (as usual) for anyone who actually lives and has to shop here. One of your parking idiots stood in front of my car in the exit ramp and refused to move over to let me pass her safely. This is not the first time I have been pinned in my spot and your employees did NOTHING to permit me to leave. Your customers show up hours early and take all the handicapped spots at Shoprite, requiring locals to lug heavy groceries in pain, all because you refuse to use your own entrance and insist on inconveniencing the local community by using Shoprite as your entrance ramp. People who live here have to run our entire October and November schedules around avoiding the ridiculous traffic you generate and fail to control. Halloween was over a week ago, and still you are making my life miserable. And you should drop historic from your name. You cancelled the July 4th reading of the Declaration of Independence, and other small scale HISTORIC events in favor of pirates and pumpkins and the almighty dollar. You will never see another penny from me in support, and I will leave negative reviews everywhere I can. I informed Croton PD verbally of the parking incident, and I will go in and file a formal complaint when I have time. You are lousy neighbors.

BLAZE! (aka The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze), Part 3

Traffic flow is much better this year as we move through the manor grounds. There's always a crowd, and if you want good photos, you need to take them without flash, generally. Make an exception and use fill flash if you want the folks you are with in your shot, but if you have a clean tissue handy, cover the flash with it so you don't get a huge whiteout. (Wish I'd had a tissue handy when we got to the new covered bridge...)









Also new this year is the safari section.









And there are some critters from previous years around, too, like the field full of snakes, and the fish.





And here, right in the middle of the fish section, we spotted this little gate crasher when someone's flash went off:



Another new and nifty feature was the set of jack in the boxes. I'll try to post a video of them later...



And, you exit through the gift shop and the food tent, where we always get a little silly with the pumpkins...















Happy Halloween!

BLAZE! (aka The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze), Part 2

Still with us? There are dinosaurs here!



And a field of celtic knotwork pumpkins.









Spooky eyes and cats..





And a huge pumpkin cauldron tended by three witches...



It wouldn't be 2012 without a Doomsday Clock...







And there is an aquarium full of fish, both Hudson River natives and more exotic fare..





Good old movie monsters make an appearance:







And yes, there is more still to come...

BLAZE! (aka The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze), Part 1

Join us for a walk through Van Cortlandt Manor's annual Halloween spectacular: The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze. Lots to see!

Enter under the pumpkin archway:



Enjoy the festively lit manor house, featuring pumpkin portraits of the Van Cortlandts.







To get there, you have to stroll past the graveyard, with skeletons and zombies rising from the grave...



And there is a spooky bonfire with ghostly celebrants...























Mikro would tell you these skelly spiders are a little problematic, since they only have 6 legs... But they were cool and creepy.