By Tom Dalton
SALEM — The giant pumpkin in the lobby of the Hawthorne Hotel arrived yesterday but was too big to get in the front door.
"We actually had to enlist aid," said Juli Lederhaus, the hotel's general manager.
The hotel used a pallet jack from the Peabody Essex Museum to transfer the pumpkin from a pickup truck to the hotel's catering truck, which has a lift gate. It was lowered to a heavy cart with large wheels and rolled through the hotel's side door.
While this went on, Lederhaus was standing on an island in Hawthorne Boulevard talking to the pumpkin crew.
"Do you want me to stop traffic?" she shouted.
Just as she spoke, she heard a voice behind her say, "I don't think you have the authority to do that."
Lederhaus spun around and saw a familiar face, Congressman John Tierney, who was in town for a public meeting.
The big pumpkin is part of a "family of pumpkins" on display in the hotel lobby. The public can guess the pumpkin's weight by going to the hotel's Web site at www.hawthornehotel.com.
