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City of Chicago offers Halloween pumpkin-smashing this weekend

City of Chicago to host pumpkin smashes in Chicago
City of Chicago to host pumpkin smashes 00:24

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Is today the greatest day you've ever known?

Or does it feel today more as if the world is a vampire, set to drain – and you are just a rat in a cage?

If you were around in 1979, did you get caught in the blizzard? Or did you go to Disco Demolition Night? Or were you, mayhap, hanging out with Justine, who never knew the rules, and hung down with the freaks and ghouls?

Do you ever ponder the cosmic significance of Vaseline afterbirths and neon coughs?

With all due respect to the good Mr. Billy Corgan, the previous four paragraphs were all just an elaborate setup. This story is not about The Smashing Pumpkins. It is about smashing pumpkins – literally.

If your house goes straight from Halloween to holiday décor, or even if you have some Thanksgiving decorations or some such in between, the City of Chicago has a free, eco-friendly way to dispose of pumpkins.

There are Halloween pumpkin smashes happening around the city, so the pumpkins can be composted and benefit soil health instead of ending up in landfills. You can smash your pumpkins at the following locations this coming Saturday, Nov. 4:

  • Plant Chicago, 4459 S. Marshfield Ave. (10 a.m.–2 p.m.) 
  • Comer Crops Youth Farm, 7200 S. Ingleside Ave. (10 a.m.–2 p.m.)
  • Morton School of Excellence, 431 N. Troy St. (10 a.m.–2 p.m.)
  • Disney II Magnet School, 3815 N. Kedvale Ave. (10 a.m.–2 p.m.)
  • George Washington High School, 3535 E. 114th St. (10 a.m.–2 p.m.)
  • Solorio Academy High School, 5400 S. St. Louis Ave. (10 a.m.–2 p.m.)
  • Coonley Elementary School, 4046 N. Leavitt St. (10 a.m.–2 p.m.) Hosted by the 47th Ward Office 
  • Carl von Linné Elementary School, 3221 N. Sacramento Ave. (10 a.m.–2 p.m.)
  • Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, 3857 W. 111th St. (10 a.m.–2 p.m.)
  • Chicago Fire Station 70, 6040 N. Clark St. (This site only: noon–4 p.m.) Hosted by the Edgewater Environmental Coalition

More Chicago area pumpkin smashing locations can be found at www.scarce.org/pumpkins.

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