SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 1958
HERALD AND NEWS. KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON
PAGE 3-D
Silly Season Opens With
Bubblegum Contest; Many
Zany Contests In Memory
.
i i -k V?t
GOOSE LAKE, once one of the miahtier of the West, it Dictured here, shot from the high
way just beyond Willow Ranch Mill. The big lake lies on the loop between Lakeview and
New Pine Creek for those making the Lakeview, Alturas loop from Klamath Falls.
A SWIMMING POOL is always a welcome addition to any community when the hot days
of summer roll around. This pool, complete with bleachers, is located in Lakeview. Visi
tors are always welcome and those stopping in Lakeview for the first time will be af
forded a sample of friendliness and hospitality typical of the West. Lakeview is located
100 miles east of Klamath Falls on Highway 66.
h A
BY DOC QUIGG
United Press Inlcmiilionnl
A CHOST VILLAGE of stone teepees seems to rise off this sagebrush hill, one of the
many you pass through in the Alturas region on a tour of that country. These symbolic rocks
wero mapped by Herald and News photographer Don Kettler near Chimney Rock.
NEW YORK (UPD These are
the days when the silly season
creeps across the land the wack
iest time of the year. No tan
yebrow is hoist when the news of
Carol Pfarr's triumph seeps out of
Chicago.
Carol. 13. captured the bubble
sum blowing championship for the
second year, out-bubbling 200 oth
ers. The winning bubble: 1114
inches.
Not too long before Carol's feat,
a North Carolina lady won the na
tional talking championship by
yapping without surcease for 92
hours. Whereupon a local news
paper remarked editorially: "So
what's so unusual about that?'
Perhaps this ability to yawn in
the face of our national wacky
seizures is what has brought us
through those trying times down
the years. A country mat can with
stand, for. instance, an epidemic
of flagpole sitters, mooning away
on their perches, must have vast
internal strength.
Let s look back at some of our
zany periods bock past the on
slaught of flying-saucer sightcrs, of
radio treasure hunts, telethons
and such. We can eliminate such
professional individualists as Jim
Moran. who sat on an ostrich egg
until he hatched it, and consider
only mass stunts. -
It was a character called "Joe
College" who 30 years ago went
on a binge pt racoon-coat wear
ing. But 10 years later he really
let go with a brief but violent
fad goldfish swallowing. This
higher educational pursuit start
ed, naturally, at Harvard.
On March 4. l'J39. a Harvard
man, on a $10 bet, gulped a live,
tail-flirting, three-inch goldfish. Im
mediately it was a rage on the
campuses. The summit was
reached when Gordon bouthwortn.
21, a veterinarian student, stood
on Waltham, Massachusetts, com
mon and swallowed 67 wriggling
fish in 14 minutes, using milk
chasers. It was the all-time rec
ord. Afterward, he ate a peanut
butter sandwich.
Miss Scottie Hunnicutt, a jun
ior in Texas, choked down three
live goldfish and claimed the fem
inine intercollegiate title.
At the height of the craze, they
began swallowing at random. One
student ate three 10-inch phono
graph records. A sophomore in
the southwest downed a 13-inch
king snake. Those were heady
days.
In the 19r0 s, the male colle
gians have turned to such com
paratively uninspired drollery as
panty raids. Finally the worm
turned. Last May, in Boston, more
than 100 Jackson College coeds
chanting "we like shorts," raided
men's dormitories and a frater
nity house in reprisal.
Sponsored talkfcsts have been
going on for a long time. In New
York, in 1928, there were 31 start
ers in a talking marathon. After
70 sleepless, but gabby, hours, all
had folded except one man and
one woman. They were finally
moved nut of the building, still
talking. The U.S. Senate, too, has
been remarkable in this art, but,
then, they are professionals.
Throughout the years pics have
furnished excuses for millions of
local contests on three levels of
endeavor baking, eating, and
throwing. And various methods of
getting from here to there have
been utilized for odd contests
such as pancake races, waiters'
races, and even egg rolling. But
it took a professional promoter to
focus national attention on the Sim
plcst form of all walking.
It was in 1928 that C. C. (Cash
and Carry) Pyle, the promoter,
had athletes walking across the
U.S. in the first international bun
ion derby." He tried another, in
1929, but it fizzled out in miu-
contincnt.
Flagpole sitting, however, Just
never dies out. As late as 1955, in
the state of Washington, a woman
claimed a record of 1K9 days on n
0-foot pole, saying she had spent
more than five of her seven months
of pregnancy there.
In 1929, flagpole sitting among
juveniles broke out so heavily in
Baltimore that at one time three
girls and 18 boys all were sitting
at one time on poles aottea over
the city. Some had divans on top;
others, just poles. The mayor com
plimented their "grit and stamina."
The most rugged national con
test was a depression craze, be
gun about 1930. the dance mara
thon. In one ot these, in uucago
in 1931, eight couples were still
going after six months more than
3,300 hours of dancing, with 10
minutes out of every hour for sleep
ing on beds raised at the loot.
Swaying away, couples would fall
to the floor, sound asleep, only to
be jerked upright, slapped, ana
forced to shuffle on. Their feet
were taped, wrists swollen, faces
puffed, eyes black-circled. Women
dancers wore out two and three
partners. Spectators paid $1.50 a
seat. .
Anyone for a vicuna-shearing
contest?
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