With the start of October and cooler weather my thoughts always turn to pumpkins and Halloween Jack-O-Lantern carving. Nowadays you might pick up a pumpkin at the grocery store, at a farmer’s market, or maybe even a pick-your-own place. However, if you were a kid living on the lower part of the Northside during the 1930s through the mid-1960s you likely got your Halloween pumpkin, from the same place I did — from “Pumpkin Joe” Greenstein.
Joe Greenstein was a Northside grocer who had a store at 307 Plymouth Ave. He claimed, as a little boy, his family was too poor to afford a pumpkin, so once he stole one. Because of this, he did not want any child to have to choose between a small deprivation or a small crime so he decided that the children of North Minneapolis would always be provided with pumpkins. He once was quoted as saying, “There’s something about this particular vegetable. They are like humans. No two of them are alike. They make you smile.” The only years he didn’t distribute pumpkins were during World War II. Because he was off serving our country, a sign was placed on the grocery store door stating “Store closed. Off to fight the war.” He was just leasing the property then, so he paid the rent throughout the war so he could maintain the lease.
For students at schools that were close to his store, they would go over there for “Pumpkin Day.” There would be hundreds of pumpkins dropped off early in the morning by farmers from Anoka, Champlin and some other northern suburban areas for the distribution. Part of Plymouth Ave. would be closed off and the traffic diverted on that day. Pumpkin Day at the store also involved farm animals, floats, local children’s celebrities and a few politicians, along with television and newspaper folks.
For students who went to a school not making the trip to the store, loads of pumpkins were sent directly to the schools. I went to John Hay Elementary on Penn and Oak Park Aves. Every October, we’d wait for the fire drill alarm to go off because we knew when we got outside there would be trucks loaded with pumpkins and we’d each get one to take home. The kindergarteners got to pick first so they often ended up with the biggest pumpkins which they could sometimes barely carry. I still remember carrying my pumpkin home every year.
Not only did Joe Greenstein give out pumpkins, but also sometimes gave Mother’s Day plants to the younger students from St. Joseph and Blaine Schools which were near his store. He was also known to donate items to Ascension Church and School. By the early 1960s, the highway department was looking to take his store for what would eventually become I-94. Joe Greenstein then ran for 5th Ward Alderman (city councilman) and served five consecutive terms. In 1965, Joe held his last Pumpkin Day. His store was gone by then but he used a dilapidated old house and decorated it as a haunted house for the pumpkin distribution.
Joe Greenstein passed away in 1980 having never left the Northside. I’ll bet that if you went to Blaine, Grant, Hall, Harrison, Hawthorne, John Hay, Lowell, Willard, Ascension, Basilica, St Anne’s, St Joseph’s or St Phillip’s Schools, or was a little tyke at some Northside nursery schools in those years, you still have very fond memories of Joe Greenstein – our Northside “Pumpkin Man.”