Bizzare local customs: McCarthy's legacy "Loyalty days"

Qingdai · #1 05-05-2009, 07:20 AM

Turns out one of my friends went to the beach this weekend and almost got caught up in one of the stranger local events.
Newport Oregon "Loyalty Days." Yes, it's a parade, put on by a private group, started during the Eisenhower years to combat the May day parades that were popular at the time. I've never heard of "Loyalty Day."

Oregon: Loyalty Days, Newport Oregon (Local Legacies: Celebrating Community Roots - Library of Congress)

It's more controversial than the above site would have you believe. They have been ejecting anyone who is not in their agenda. Both according to this article and my friend was also told by a local they don't participate in this event anymore because of the exclusion of many participants.

Ah, controversy in the left coast!

Does anyone else have something like this in their neighborhood?

mickthinks · #2 05-05-2009, 12:17 PM

Lewes Bonfire

There are bonfires and fireworks all over the country on or near 5th Nov to mark the anniversary of the thwarting of Guy Fawkes's attempt to blow up the king and parliament in 1605. But Lewes does it big, and a bit scary.

LadyShea · #3 05-05-2009, 09:59 PM

The Florabama Mullet Toss

Rednecks drink beer and throw fish across the state line.

Pretty sure that wins the thread

Ensign Steve · #4 05-05-2009, 10:07 PM

That. is. AWESOME!

LadyShea · #5 05-05-2009, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

That. is. AWESOME!

Ya think? Feel free to come down next year and throw fish. I'll stay home though

Seriously, it's so fucking random. I imagine some people got drunk at the Florabama, picked up a dead fish, and thought it would be cool to throw it into Florida or whatever...then it became a custom for some unknown reason lost to time.

godfry n. glad · #6 05-05-2009, 11:02 PM

Well, we now know how ES & Bey will spend their free time together.

:troutslap:

I must admit, it is....aw-....aw-....It fills me with awe.

Yes, game over...set over...LS4TW!

Dingfod · #7 05-05-2009, 11:07 PM

They just had it a few weeks ago (April 18th): the World Cow Chip Tossing Championship, held annually in Beaver, Oklahoma for 40 years now.

LINK

godfry n. glad · #8 05-05-2009, 11:13 PM

And I just tried to tell everybody about the week long alcoholic binge known as the Pendleton Round-Up. It's on that list Qingdai posted up....with the pablum written by former Senator Gordon Smith, who, of course, lived in Pendleton.

Of course, it doesn't tell you much about the former history of Pendleton as the "Entertainment Capital of the Inland Empire"....aka Cat House Heaven in the arid plateau of eastern Oregon and Washington and northern Idaho. Up until the mid-1950's the town was known for it's prodigious number of whorehouses. Many of the existing business structures along Pendleton's main street still have some fairly interesting structural features on the upper floors. So, the Round-Up was probably another means of diffusing all sorts of job stress for all those cow-punchers.

But now...it is all naught. It is nothing compared to the Florabama Mullet Toss.

fragment · #9 05-06-2009, 12:00 AM

Wow. And I thought the Taihape gumboot throwing festival was odd.

Qingdai · #10 05-06-2009, 12:48 AM

Tossing fish or gumboots, while bizarre, don't have the weird political umph of the "Loyalty Days."

Nice to know that other cultures are also strange.

godfry n. glad · #11 05-06-2009, 01:08 AM

Well, I'm more puzzled by our local insanity, the Rose Festival. We go through all the trouble of spending months selecting the Rose Festival Princess and her court, and then, even with a very high-profile volcano visible from town, they don't bother to actually sacrifice the honored victim. With that level of disappointment, it is difficult to keep up one's enthusiasm for spring vegetative rites.

Last year's festival controversy was tape on the sidewalk. Duct tape, actually. Used to mark 'reserved spots' on the parade streets by those who don't want to have to arise at 4 am to drive to the area and stake out a spot by actually sitting on it. I don't get it, but somehow defacing the sidewalk, curb or street gains you a right to sit there during the passage of the parade. I didn't think temporary squatting had any standing in American property law...particularly on clearly public property.

Anyway, I note the blurb in the Smithsonian logs says nothing about the Scum Center (which the organizers used to call the 'Fun Center'), nor that the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and a contingent of Canadian naval types all swim upstream to spawn during festival time.

ceptimus · #12 05-06-2009, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fragment

Wow. And I thought the Taihape gumboot throwing festival was odd.

A friend of mine built a Welly-throwing machine in his shed. I was there during one of the testing phases. :excited:

Ian is very proud of his shed. You can see some photos and read about it here. You can see the welly wanger on one of the photos, but it's hard to make out amongst all the TQT.

curses · #13 05-06-2009, 06:14 PM

Similar to LS we have the Summer Redneck Games here in Georgia. It's stretching a bit since it's technically in south Georgia.

Ymir's blood · #14 05-06-2009, 10:04 PM

Don't forget the custom of labeling the rainy season in Atlanta as a drought.

Demimonde · #15 05-08-2009, 07:56 PM

Sweetwater, Tx has an annual Rattlesnake Round-Up....

... and Cook-Off

naturalist.atheist · #16 05-09-2009, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qingdai

Ah, controversy in the left coast!

Does anyone else have something like this in their neighborhood?

Maybe a little but not as bizarre. In Tallahassee they hold an annual Andrew Jackson parade which native Americans take great umbrage with. Most people here just see it as an excuse to celebrate spring.

Qingdai · #17 05-09-2009, 06:07 PM

I think many local customs piss of the native Americans, with good reason.

Columbus day. Pioneer days. At the Oregon trail anniversary celebration, which had some people dressed as pioneers walk the whole thing (dysentery was frowned on as "trying too hard), then a native American group set up a customs agency. They had questionnaires to fill out, "how do you feel about genocide?" at the end.

naturalist.atheist · #18 05-09-2009, 06:12 PM

Okay, you win. It is more bizarre. Kinda like having a Nazi parade in Israel.

Qingdai · #19 05-09-2009, 06:20 PM

Oh, I don't think there is any winning.

I think it's easy to forget that there is a political content in many local celebrations.

naturalist.atheist · #20 05-09-2009, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qingdai

Oh, I don't think there is any winning.

I think it's easy to forget that there is a political content in many local celebrations.

Certainly. In the case of that parade the political reason for its inception was to keep legislators from moving the State Capitol to Orlando. Why they thought Andy Jackson would do the trick I have no idea.

Dingfod · #21 05-12-2009, 01:54 AM

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma Rooster Days.

Dingfod · #22 05-13-2009, 11:53 PM

For quirkiness, not much can beat Fruita Colorado's annual spectacle celebrating the famous Miracle Mike the Headless Chicken who lived 18 months sans cranium back in 1945-46, fed via syringe and eyedropper. Mike is long gone, but the festival is in it's 12th year. It includes the Run Like a Headless Chicken 5K and other activities. It's coming up this weekend folks, book your flights to Grand Junction ASAP.

sterre · #23 06-05-2009, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadyShea

The Florabama Mullet Toss

Rednecks drink beer and throw fish across the state line.

Pretty sure that wins the thread

Not sure I like the idea of drunk rednecks throwing fish at my state.
Only "weird" thing here is celebrating the pirate invasion on Gasparilla day.