Cradle of Aviation visitors smash pumpkins

Ker-splat.

That's the sound Thor O'Connell Jr., 8, was waiting to hear.

He barely controlled his excitement -- or the 20-pound pumpkin in his hands -- as he ascended the stairs at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale.

"This is going to go 'Boom!' " he said.

Thor and his dad, Thor Sr., were among about 150 participants in Sunday's fourth annual Cradle Of Aviation Pumpkin Drop at the aerospace museum.

For the price of an admission ticket, children and their parents got to hurl pumpkins -- and a few gourds and some aptly named squashes -- from a third-floor balcony inside the museum.

The museum's director of operations, Gary Monti, said the institution could have framed the event as "an experiment with gravity," but chose to be less high-minded. "In fact, all we're doing is smashing pumpkins," he said, adding that the leftover pumpkin shrapnel will seed a pumpkin patch on the museum's grounds that will yield some of next year's crop.

The museum gives away about 300 pumpkins, ranging in size from less than a pound to 150 pounds, and invites residents to use their own leftover Halloween pumpkins, Monti said. Most of the victims were around the size of a traditional Halloween carving pumpkin, which tends to run 8 to 12 pounds.

About 400 total pumpkins were splattered Sunday, though none approached last year's record 300-pounder. "It took a few people to lift that one," Monti said.

Thor O'Connell Sr., a retired lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Marines, said the pumpkin event is a good way for parents to get their children interested in the rest of the Cradle of Aviation Museum, which includes exhibits on aeronautics, and aviation and military history.

"Long Island has a big history of aviation. You know it's important to have a place like this," said O'Connell of Rockville Centre. "And dropping pumpkins doesn't hurt."

The pumpkin-tossing, held in the museum's atrium onto a plastic tarp, drew a crowd of delighted children and horrified parents, many of whom shrieked when seeds and pumpkin innards splashed farther than expected.

Cody Dickinson, 6, and his mother, Joan, chucked a small pumpkin from the balcony before retiring to the splash zone, where Cody ran commentary and Joan ducked seeds.

"It's like watching the stars," said Cody, of Lake Grove. "But the stars splatter."