I drove into town this morning to deliver a canelet picked up in Portland to my friend Zach and saw lawn chairs beginning to line highway 101 and sheriff's deputies directing traffic. Oh crap, I forgot this weekend is Loyalty Days. While I have no interest whatsoever in watching a parade of classic corvettes and logging trucks (yes, seriously, the parades I went to in highschool featured fully loaded logging trucks and I can't imagine that has changed) wind its way through the middle of town, I do find the tradition kind of fascinating, in a sick, cold war holdout, kind of way.
In the 1950s and 60s, lots of small towns around America had "Loyalty Day" festivals or parades on May 1 as a sort of counter to the totally communist May Day worker's celebrations. Eisenhower officially declared it a holiday in the 1950s, and according to Wikipedia, George Bush proclaimed it as a holiday again this year. I found that rather amusing. The old communist threat is gone, so the reasoning behind holding an anti-holiday on May 1 (or thereabouts) is gone too, but . . . the parade lives on.
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I was on track - for a degree or a career or a healthy retirement fund - for my first 29 years. I decided to see what a year off track feels like. Starting December 23, 2006, this is where you can find updates on the no doubt boring adventures of Corina derailed.
About Me
- Corina
- The header says alot, but I'm a 30-year-old lawyer turned dropout who really really loves to be places other than home, wherever that happens to be at the moment. I believe rainy days are a personal affront and take umbrage when the sun is behind clouds. I love summer with an unholy passion. I watch insane amounts of television (or did until I gave up, temporarily I hope, television reception), and have given up feeling bad about it. Most of the time.
2 comments:
Ooh- canelets sound yummy! Are they only available this time of year?
Thanks for the info on Loyalty Days- very interesting- has your town always had Loyalty Days or did they start it back up with the Iraq War? What do they do the rest of the weekend (apart from the parade)?
OMG, canelets are insanely insanely insanely good. Delicious in fact. I'm pretty sure you can get them year round since it's not like any of the ingredients are seasonal.
As for Loyalty Days, it's been a steady institution here since the 1960s. I'm not entirely sure what the other activities are since I'm so ridiculously anti-social, but I know there is a Loyalty Days Queen and her Court, and I'm pretty sure there's some sort of fun fair with rides and cotton candy that gets set up in the Wal-Mart parking lot (I'm totally not joking on the location).
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