No, it’s not what you think.
A friend of mine at the local radio station in this tiny ass little PA town I live in was telling me about this last night. Apparently, this town is the site of the very first screw factory in the United States. Fascinating, isn’t it? The town has planned on celebrating its ‘claim to fame’ this August with a 2 day Festival. I can’t wait. I mean, I use screws all the time! (Read with sarcastic tone, please.)
This could probably fall easily in the Onion Stories thread, but like they say, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
So, does your town have a ‘claim to fame’ or an odd festival celebration? Share…
If three people say you are an ass, put on a bridle.
-Spanish Proverb
Our small town (less than 4000 people) has one claim to fame: being the birthplace of Jesse James. It’s a kooky, kooky place. It attracts some interesting people- historians, civil war nuts, and lots and lots of FREAKS. I used to give tours at the museum. There’s a big festival in September every year, the Jesse James Festival. More than 20,000 people show up for it. It’s a crazy little town.
I live in the town where Jesse James tried to rob his last bank(it was unsuccessful). Then the townsfolk all chased him away.
(We also have a Jesse James Day(the defeat of…) celebration.)
My hometown of Bedford, PA is the site of the world’s first curved bridge. I used to drive over it everyday, and think outloud to myself that “Wow, this is the world’s first curved bridge. How lucky am I to be driving across it?” (Sarcasm) Oh, and Dean Koontz graduated from my high school. He was back in town one weekend and my mom almost ran him over with her car.
A town nearby has a “Bay-Rama Fish Fly Festival” every year. They have a beauty pageant and everything. The only picture I can find on the internet of this lovely little creature is here (third bug down). http://www.detroitnews.com/1998/accent/9806/11/06110023.htm
Why our town honors this pest is still beyond me, although the carnival rides and parades are kind of cool.
My wife’s hometown is the sister (across the river) city of Bangor, ME, home of horror novelist Stephen King.
We went to a local college basketball game. He was sitting in the box seats above and to the right of ours.
Judges 14:9 - So [Samson] scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
I live in Santa Rosa, CA. This is where Luther Burbank, the famed horticulturist, made his home and performed many of his plant breeding experiments. “In his working career Burbank introduced more than 800 new varieties of plants including over 200 varieties of fruits, many vegetables, nuts and grains, and hundreds of ornamental flowers.”
“It is now proved beyond doubt that smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.”
Honest. I went to college in Conway, Arkansas. About 7 miles west of Conway, on the Arkansas River, is Toad Suck Ferry Lock and Dam, located at the point of an old ferry crossing called, you guessed it, Toad Suck Ferry. Toad Suck Ferry, in turn, took its name from the old Toad Suck Saloon once located there. Toad Suck Saloon, well, if you’re that interested, try this link: http://members.aol.com/tshirrp/toadsuck.html
In the eighties, when I was in college, Toad Suck Daze was actually held at Toad Suck Park. It was moved into town as a result of a flood in the early nineties and has stayed there since. You want the whole, uh, straight dope, including a peek at the Toad Suck Daze logo (remarkably unchanged since its early days)? Hit http://asms.k12.ar.us/armem/ferguson/INDEX.htm for more than you wanted to know.
The town just down the road from where I grew up is home to an annual “Covered Bridge Festival”. What’s the point in putting a roof on a bridge, anyway?
The tiny little town I grew up in – Galway, NY – was the residence of one Joseph Henry, inventor of the electromagnet and one of the founders of the Smithsonian Institute. I went to Joseph Henry Elementary Schoool. There stands one of those blue “places of historical interest” signs outside of the house he lived in, which is now just a pile of charred rubble, victim of a fire many many years ago. Nobody has yet attempted to build a new house there, nor has anyone really cleaned up the mess…
Oh, and the next little town over, Ballston Spa, was the home of Abner Doubleday, generally credited for inventing the game of baseball.
I live in Morgan Hill, two towns to the north of Gilroy (the aforementioned Garlic Capital of the World).
Not to be outdone by Gilroy’s Garlic Festival, Morgan Hill puts on a “Mushroom Mardi Gras” every year in midsummer. I don’t know if Morgan Hill is the mushroom capital of the world, or even of Northern California, but they play it that way.
Incidentally, a little ways south of Gilroy is the city of Hollister, which has the distinction of being the birthplace of the Hell’s Angels.
If anyone has an annual festival that can beat Zozobra, I’d like to hear it. Every year, we gather in the park to drink beer, watch fireworks, and burn a 50-foot tall man while ghosts and the devil dance around him.
Hey Tracer, you’re prettymuch a local, you being in Morgan Hill and all.
Anyway, my town isn’t known for anything at all…boo hoo.
But, in the nearby town of Castroville, they have an Artichoke Festival. They are supposed to be the largest producer of artichokes in the US. All kinds of wondrous dishes made with artichokes. Their first artichoke Queen was none other than pre-Hollywood fame Marilyn Monroe.
It’s worth the risk of burning, to have a second chance…
We have the Onion Harvest Festival, to celebrate the onions grown in the black dirt region of NY. And, if that wasn’t enough to make you jealous, a few weeks after that, we have the Cheese Festival.