This image from 2017 represents a post-Halloween tradition in Nanaimo of discarding pumpkins along Jingle Pot Rd., in particular surrounding the East Wellington Fire Hall. (Sharon & Darrel Voss)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

LIGHT IT UP

Nanaimo’s ‘Shady Mile’ pumpkin display lights up Jingle Pot area

Nov 1, 2020 | 11:44 AM

NANAIMO — It might look a little different than in years past, but the annual Shady Mile pumpkin display still draws a crowd.

Coleen Budd, who has lived in the area since 2004, said the tradition has changed and dwindled a little over the years given growth and development along Jingle Pot Rd.

“When the fire hall wasn’t there, people used to put pumpkins all along the whole road, a whole mile of pumpkins and a man used to come at night and light them all.”

Now a majority of pumpkins find a home at the East Wellington Fire Hall, with other pockets dotted along Jingle Pot Rd.

The display is a far cry from its heyday but is still an attraction after Halloween.

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“You couldn’t get up on the road,” Budd said. “If there was an emergency I often used to think ‘how would a car or ambulance get through?’ It was wall to wall cars both ways…that went on for at least half an hour to an hour.”

Trouble has been to a minimum with the main issues being people smashing pumpkins in the days following.

“”They think its fun I guess, I don’t but anyway. I wish it could go back to having it the way it was. It was kinda cool when they did it all the way along the whole road.”

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