Steve Paproski of Castle Hill Farm was saying this week that his pumpkin crop was thinned by about 20 percent this year because of all the wet weather. Evidently, the bees all stayed in their hives on rainy days, and consequently the pumpkin blossoms weren’t pollinated. No pollination, no pumpkin.

 The bee is supposed to be a symbol of indefatigable industry, which is a trait we try to instill in everyone who comes to work here at the paper. If it gets out that bees are slackers on rainy days, then on weeks like this we may have trouble getting the paper out.

 While there may be a shortage of pumpkins this Halloween, I personally guarantee, as a card carrying member of the Brotherhood of  Fuliginous Felines, that black cats will not be scared off by rain or any other circumstance this Halloween. We take our role as a spooky symbol of superstition seriously.

Speaking of spooky stuff, all the screaming and shouting you’ll hear this weekend will be coming from Socko’s Haunted Yard, behind the Botsford firehouse on Route 25. The terror begins at 6:30 pm Thursday night and continues Friday and Saturday. Socko’s will also be open October 26 through 31. He’s waiting for you.

Volunteer firefighters from the area did a great job of providing fire education during Fire Prevention Week October 8 through 14 to the youngsters of Newtown. Children say the funniest things, though. At Middle Gate School when the fireman asked if the children had ever heard the smoke alarm go off, one little boy shouted out, “When my mom is cooking.”

The little tots at Newtown Congregational Cooperative Nursery School kept asking where the firemen were on Tuesday. They have a direct view of the firehouse and saw the garage door open and close but it seemed like hours before they reached their school. A false alarm delayed the Newtown firefighters. The children there also believed firemen do not read, but firefighter Bill McAllister assured them that firemen have to read a lot so they can do their jobs correctly.

Hats off – not literally – to volunteer firefighters Rich McCulloch, Justin Moser, and Chris Belair. They were good sports at the Nursery School when they also sported the plastic fire hats given to the children there. And Fireman Bill kept getting the Xs on the floor confused with the squares the kids used to sit on. But the children there had no problem correcting his error.

Diana Johnson was stopping traffic in both directions on Church Hill Road on October 5 around 10 am. She had just left a meeting of the Holiday Tree Lighting Committee and was driving down Church Hill Road when she happened to look in her rear view mirror. Behind her, there was a blizzard of white paper. “It was flying all over the place,” she said. Suddenly she realized what had happened – she had left her file folder, with 16 years of Tree Lighting Committee paperwork, on the roof of her car.

Heedless of the traffic, she stopped her car and backed up to where the papers were still falling, with cars running into and over the papers. Mrs Johnson quickly left her car and began to pick up the papers from the street, bringing traffic to a halt in both directions. As she was busily collecting the lost papers, she became aware of other people in the road. Two men and a woman had stopped to help her. The good news is that all the paperwork was retrieved, some perhaps a little worse for wear, and it all has since been committed to a computer file.

 Congratulations to Linda Dale and Bob Mulholland, who will celebrate 30 years of marriage Saturday. Happy anniversary.

Gordon Williams stopped by The Bee on Tuesday and was musing about everything he had scheduled for that evening, and wondering how he could do it all. Gordon said he had a Literacy Volunteers meeting and a church council meeting, plus he wanted to watch the Mets game, but Lina wanted to watch the presidential debates. I don’t know how Gordon sorted it all out – these were some tough choices.

William Pinkney, captain of Amistad America, a replica of the slave ship made famous in the recent Steven Spielberg movie, stopped by Pitney Bowes in Newtown Wednesday afternoon to help the company celebrate its Diversity Day. Among his many accomplishments, Mr Pinkney is the first African-American person to sail solo around the world. His experiences taught him many lessons – among them, “never trust a weatherman who doesn’t have a window.”

Longtime Newtown Savings Bank employee Dave Treadwell will celebrate a birthday on Monday.

If you placed a call and received a busy signal over the past few days, you probably heard this recording: “That number is busy. If you would like ‘call again’ to call you back when the line is no longer busy, press 3. If you subscribe to ‘call again’ you will see no additional charge. If you are not a subscriber, you will be charged 75 cents. Otherwise, please hang up and try your call later.”

According to an SNET operator, “call again” is a new service that many customers have ordered. Others are not thrilled with the message and have had it removed. To have yours removed, dial 811.

Those traveling through Fairfield Hills this past weekend may have noticed the giant banner hanging from the smokestack which towers above the campus. We can not repeat what the banner said, but it was not flattering to the Newtown Police Department. Some have suggested that the banner was put up in response to the recent string of drug arrests made at Newtown High School.

The fourth season of the women’s basketball league at the Newtown Health & Fitness Club kicks off next Tuesday. There are still some spots remaining and those interested are asked to call the club at 426-8591.

I’m envious of  Steve Landin. He is a New York Mets season ticket holder, which entitles him to tickets to one World Series game. No word on what game he’ll attend.

As much as I want Steve to he happy, especially when he’s checking me for cavities when I visit his dental office, I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that the Yankees are going to beat the Mets in the subway World Series next week. The Bombers in six!

To see how I’m doing with my prediction, be sure to…

Read me again.