Now that I’ve attended for a second time the annual Indiana Gourd Show, an early springtime event in Kokomo, I continue to marvel at the variety, imagination and creativity of the decorations that dazzled my eyes and befuddled my head. In fact, the name "gourd show" doesn’t really express the intensity of excitement or the energy and color of this show. It’s truly a gourd art show.

I think of gourds as squash you can’t eat. If I can’t eat it, I’m usually not all that interested in it. But after seeing what people do with gourds, I began to appreciate their tough but lightweight nature.

The hard shell gourds accept all kinds of decorative changes. They can be painted, burned, carved, sawed, cut apart or away to reveal their hollow innards, glued together or trimmed with anything that can be glued on.

Gourds are like people. They come in every size, color, shape, and surface texture. Within their numerous categories they also grow wildly, often encouraged and even abetted by their growers so that their stems become twisted like ropes, or knotted or curled.

At the Johanning Civic Center, vendors filled part of the parking lot, showing huge boxes and bags of gourds apparently fresh out of the fields, this year or last. A large, long handled gourd could cost $10. "Egg" gourds, like little brown eggs from the farm, cost for a quarter each, banana gourds 50 cents each. "Apple" gourds, shaped just like an apple, but the size of a melon, were $5. And all this while I’m still in the parking lot!

Using my complimentary ticket from Jim Story, gourd expert from Pendleton, I got my hand stamped and moved along with flow of people. Booths along the sides and in the middle displayed the work of artisans from many states. I picked up cards from gourd artists from North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and even California.

One booth sold mini saws. A man was demonstrating how to saw into a gourd to make a covered bowl from it. A three-sided big booth in the center featured shoe dyes, cans of shoe polish, and leather paint, all used to color the gourds. Brown leather dye must be popular. Many gourds were stained dark brown before they were further decorated and varnished.

The unique and unusual mixed in with the conventional. I saw painted birdhouses and decorated bowls. One artist had covered several large egg gourds with a mosaic of colored glass bits. She set each egg in an egg cup. I asked whether they were sharp on the fingers. No, she smoothes them off. I touched one. It had no sharp edges.

Another woman had used the smaller, long necked gourds as doll heads, the handles becoming very long noses. The dolls were dressed in country skirts, wigs on their gourd domes, their aprons testifying that they were of a different race.

Booths offered an assortment of books on designs. There were books on wood burning (pyrography), painting or carving. Booths sold mini power tools. Booths sold Christmas tree ornaments of small painted gourds, larger gourds as a snowman or as a Santa, shiny red apple gourds, gourds with woven basket rims. In fact, one booth was basketry related to gourds.

Set apart from the booths was the display area of competitive artwork – not for sale – from simple table arrangements of gourds to entries in innumerable categories. Several of these were striking to me. One artist had "seen" a snake emerging from its shell in that gourd. The three-dimensional amphibians included a crab, a turtle, and a most resplendent coiled, curled dragon with scales glistening in green and gold. One very long snake was covered with small rectangles of colored beads in turquoise, orange, and white.

A particularly enticing display was a buxom gourd figure of Betty Boop, long legs hanging from her perch on a curved golden moon gourd, white feather boa around her neck and down her body, her black curly thatch and long eyelashes just as I remembered her.

Before I left, I bought a lady gourd I found irresistible. Her plumpness is black, covered with red mesh, and draped with a black lace collar, fastened with a shiny brooch. Her bland, unruffled stare says, "I know just who I am," and her head is crowned with a wide brimmed lacy hat. She was well worth $10. I also bought a dollar envelope of loofah seeds. The seller, from North Carolina, advised me to start them ahead. So my next purchase will be peat pots.