Apple Harvest Day 5K and Festival Returns to Dover

DOVER—
Based on last year’s success, the Apple Harvest Day 5k is back this year with an improved course and enhanced experience. The event will take place on Saturday, October 1, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
This year’s race includes the popular Apple Harvest Day 5k T-Shirt for the first 400 runners, a USTAF certified 5k downtown course (changes pending), cash prizes for top three male and female runners, age group prizes for the top three finishers in each division, awards presented in the heart of festival, and more. Registration is available online, priced at $17 for adults and $12 for children under 12. On the day of the race, registration costs $20 for adults, $15 for children under 12.
The race proceeds benefit the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce’s community programming such as Apple Harvest Day and Cochecho Arts Festival. In 2011, the Cochecho Arts Festival brought 30 free concerts to Dover over a 7-week period. In addition, it helps support educational initiatives such as Teacher of the Year Awards and Chamber Scholarships.
After you run the race, stay in Dover for a full day of family fun at Apple Harvest Day underwritten by Federal Savings Bank. The Harvest Day committee has brought some significant enhancements to the festival including “Orchard Alley” along Orchard Street, which will feature a half dozen farms and orchards showcasing their fall harvests. There will also be family-friendly amusement zones in Henry Law Park and the Cocheco Courtyard and the new Northend Rocks Stage on Third Street.
In addition to these new features, patrons will find the streets lined with local artists and crafters displaying and selling their work, non-profits spreading the word about their various charitable causes, and a wide variety of local businesses, many of whom are offering Festival Specials and other attractive discounts. There will be food, music, dancing and entertainment, a petting zoo, a pie baking contest, raffles and giveaways, carnival rides and amusements, and of course, lots and lots of apples and apple products ranging from fragrant baked goods to freshly made cider.
Over the years, Apple Harvest Day has truly become a signature event here in Dover, and its broad appeal and timeless charm underscore the genuine sense of community that permeates our extraordinary city. Steeped in tradition, Apple Harvest Day is always a cheerful and energizing occasion for citizens of all ages, and on this, the 26th year of the event, we are sure that it will be the most memorable one yet.
Enjoy the celebration, and most of all, enjoy the precious company of friends and family and the simple delights that make Dover a great place to live, work and visit. We hope to produce the Festival for many years to come, and continue to showcase our community in all its New England splendor.
For more information, contact the Chamber office at 603/742-2218.
Photo caption: Dover will host its 26th annual Apple Harvest Day on October 1, including the second annual 5k event. (Courtesy photo)

Somersworth Readies for Pumpkin Festival

SOMERSWORTH—
Once again, loads and loads of activities - all family-friendly and pumpkin-themed - will be front and center during the city’s 9th Annual Pumpkin Festival, set to take place on Saturday, Oct. 8.
“Everything’s pumpkin, pumpkin and more pumpkin,” Festival Co-Director Darryl Cauchon said. “Loads of fun for the whole family.”
The Oct. 8 event will feature tents offering pumpkin carving, pumpkin painting, pumpkin putt-putt golf, pumpkin smashing, pumpkin catapult, pumpkin basketball shooting and pumpkin pie eating contests. The festival will conclude with a short Pumpkin Parade down Main Street at 3:30 p.m. with kids encouraged to take part.
Always trying to keep things fresh, the festival will introduce a giant slingshot this year in which kids can fire small pumpkins into orbit.
The primary objective of the festival, sponsored by the Somersworth Festival Association, is to offer areas that encourage participation of parents and children of all ages.
“We really seek to have parents and their kids do things together, rather than the adults standing in the background watching their kids have all the fun,” said Cauchon. “In this light, families can carve a pumpkin together, make a scarecrow together, take a hay ride together, etch leaves together, get a meal from our food court and eat together, enjoy the live music, get a family photo taken to remember the day.”
The event will be held rain or shine. Bracelets sell for $12 per child (adults are free), which allows them access to all activities except the food court. All supplies are provided for each area, including pumpkins to paint, smash, catapult, slingshot or carve. Everything necessary to create a scarecrow, including hay, shirt, pants and face kit, are also available.
The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in front of Somersworth Plaza on Main Street, just down the street from General Electric.
Deborah Longo, the library director, will host a continuous “Halloween Pumpkin Storytime” under a tent located in the heart of the plaza. There will also be a family and child photo area managed by local photographer John Huff. Festival-goers can pose behind plywood decorated like scarecrows or simply pose in a more traditional backdrop of hay bales and pumpkins.
“We really want to have a festival that appeals to kids of all ages and not just children 8 years and younger. Older kids will like pulling the trigger to the catapult, building a scarecrow, bowling with a pumpkin for a ball. There’s just so much for that age-group, both boys and girls, as well,” Cauchon said.
Performances by the Doug Mitchell Band, the Somersworth High and Tri-City Christian Academy select choruses, Tricky Dick the Magician, and other soloists and duets will highlight the main stage. Dance teams, cloggers and jump roping teams will be featured on the second stage area throughout the day as well.
Papa Gino’s will be selling pizza, the Boy Scouts will serve up hot dogs and hamburgers, the Lions will make fried dough, the Girl Scouts will offer chili, and other non-profits will also have items such as cotton candy, popcorn and chowder.
Hayrides will be offered all day from the plaza entrance down to the Summersworth Historical Museum and back. Face painting, pumpkin mask making, bead making and Pumpkin Cookie/Pumpkin Cupcake Decorating tents will also be available for the children.
Organizers are also always looking for volunteers to help oversee a myriad of areas and any amount of time would be appreciated.
For more information, call Cauchon at 841-0858 or email Co-Director Anna Houde at annahoude@yahoo.com.

What the…? A Review of Stephen King’s ‘Mile 81’

By Chip Schrader
Book Reviewer
Stephen King continues his experiment with publishing with “Mile 81,” a story that is published strictly as an eBook to be downloaded to a Nook, iPad, Kindle or any of the other e-readers edging their way into the market. King is known to play with publishing formats: electronic, serial (“The Green Mile”), and comic and graphic novel re-releases (“The Dark Tower”), to name a few. With this eBook, it is evident that King is still having fun writing and publishing his stories, and he is taking his fans with him for the joyride.
As any Maine resident knows, Exit 81, under the new exit naming system, stands at 81 miles north of the Maine border on I-95. The whole story takes place at the abandoned rest area on this exit.
Long-time readers will be taken back a few years with this story. King’s main character is a ten-year-old boy, Pete Simmons, who wants to prove he is rough enough to hang out with his brother’s gang. With a half-full bottle of vodka and his favorite magnifying glass packed in his bag, he decides to hide out in the abandoned shack at this exit. For a ten-year-old, Pete has a precocious knowledge of the female anatomy, and a sense of mischief that is almost impossible to believe.
The chapters of this novella, clocking in at the equivalent of 80 print pages, are divided into the characters that will meet their untimely demise at this exit, and the make of their car. For example, Chapter 3 is named “Julianne Vernon (’05 Dodge Ram).” Known as the horse lady, Julianne stops at the exit curious about a Prius parked with a mucky station wagon. As time moves along, she gets eaten by that muddy wagon. Yes, she is eaten by a car.
The story is strange, not unlike “Christine,” which he references in this story, but it works. “Mile 81” is gruesome, bizarre, and silly, but also inventive and fun. King has an imagination that makes most of his contemporaries scoff in envy, perhaps the reason for the literary snobbery that he has been the target of in the past. Sometimes King goes out to the edge – a car eating people isn’t exactly in our realm of believability – but he weaves the campiest concepts into the kind of fun storytelling that hearkens back to old Americana.
Moreover, as he did in “Under the Dome,” he doesn’t just mercilessly slaughter character after character without a care. The characters in each segment are believable, and the reader pities their demise. In each character’s backstory, King reminds us these are loved ones with real souls who have reached out to others in their lifetimes. There is a sense of tragedy in their passing, this is where King’s genius as a horror writer shines through. He never forgets these people are human. The grisly horrific occurrences are actually episodes of high drama that ends these everyday lives.
The narration is quirky, preadolescent, filthy and very funny. At times the pop culture references and youthful tone seem a little forced, but still attention grabbing. To figure out why in the world (and how) this car is eating people is the driving force to finish reading the story, the answer is pure campy delight, and possibly predictable to select King fans. The style of storytelling and bizarre plot are classic Stephen King that references to the early short stories, novellas and novels that put him and the state of Maine on the modern literary map. Not his best work to date, but highly recommended!
File Size: 213 KB. Print Length: 80 pages. Publisher: Scribner (September 1, 2011).
Photo caption: (Courtesy e-book cover image of Stephen King’s “Mile 81”)