Monster Mash rocks downtown Scottsville square
Published 9:38 pm Saturday, October 10, 2015
- Dan Grise of Bowling Green throws a pumpkin at the Pumpkin Chunkin booth Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015, at the Monster Mash in Scottsville. (Miranda Pederson/photo@bgdailynews.com)
SCOTTSVILLE — Combine late-model roadsters, brightly decorated pumpkins amid scarecrows and foddershocks and lots of food.
In this Allen County community, the result is called the Monster Mash, said Jamie Boler on Saturday.
“This is the kind of place where everybody knows everybody,” Boler said.
Boler heads Heart of Scottsville, a downtown revitalization effort for the Allen County seat, and is director of the Scottsville-Allen County Chamber of Commerce.
In the fall during past years, the town of about 5,000 people has celebrated the season with a ’50s-’60s night. Organizers changed the name this year to the Monster Mash to pay homage to the numerous decorated scarecrows and dried cornstalks scattered around the downtown square. The scarecrows set up by various community organizations began appearing Oct.1. Monster Mash on Saturday was time to give out awards for the decorations and themes and allow residents to participate in a cake walk and just amble around and reacquaint themselves with their neighbors.
“This is a real friendly community,” said Chris Mayhew, director of outreach for the Scottsville First United Methodist Church. The 200-member church has a heritage that stretches back to the late 1800s, and Saturday Mayhew busied himself setting up the free cocoa table.
“The vision of our church is to reach out, reach out and reach in,” he said. “God loves free,” he said of the free cocoa.
Mayhew said residents seldom run into a stranger when they are in Scottsville. People are friendly and helpful, he said. “People are willing to give you a hand if you need it,” Mayhew said.
Boler and Mayhew agreed that events like the Monster Mash pull the community together. “What’s great about this is the community buy-in,” Boler said.
Brian Scott of Bowling Green who is originally from Scottsville had the opportunity to show off his 1929 Model A Ford rat rod among the cars parked at the square. He bought the Model A about 14 months ago from a car enthusiast in Ohio and has since changed the transmission to a Chevrolet and made the ride street legal.
“A lot of kids like it,” he said of the black vehicle that sported a devil’s head and “Sinner” on the front of the roof. He’s taken Sinner to shows in Russellville, Franklin and Glasgow.
“I appreciate the older cars,” Scott said. “I would rather drive this than my Chrysler 300.”
The name rat rod stems from a practice of car tinkers putting together their vehicles using a myriad of car parts, he said. “You can build these with parts just laying around,” he said.
Sinner was a bargain he said. The car’s book value is $20,000 and Scott said he’s only invested about thus far.
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