Heck, in Elma, where I lived for a decade, and my parents still dwell, slug races once defined the town's very existence. A forum user called Chronic Monkey writes,
Back in the day, my old stomping grounds of Elma, Washington, hosted the annual SLUG FESTIVAL! Yes, it was 3 days of fun and merriment dedicated to everyone's favorite gastropod, the noble slug, culminating in the ultimate event, the SLUG RACES! Imagine, if you will, 8 slugs barreling down the track at blistering speeds, competing against one another in a life and death struggle to win the title of the Fastest Slug in the State of Washington. Unfortunately, Elma's snootier town elders felt that a slug festival did not bestow grace and diginity upon our small community, and it was replaced with the mind-numbingly dull Blackberry Festival. That little celebration was thankfully put out of its misery after about the 5th year into it. I always dream of the day, though, that the Slug Festival returns to Elma for good!Amen, brother/sister. The last slug race was the day the music died.
Learn all you need to know about slugs here.
3 comments:
Dear Jim, I've recently acquired my Grandpa's old VHS tapes of the Elma Slug Festible (he was Ron Woodman-President of the whole thing) and so I decided to do an internet search to see if anyone still talked about it. I was really young when the Slug Festival was around and with the Black Berry Festival. I remember very little however now being 24 and watching these videos I would love to see the Festival make a comeback. Glad to see I'm not the only one.
That's cool... and it'd be doubly cool if you could find a way to upload some clips to YouTube!
Dear Jim, I, too, once lived in Elma and fondly remember the slug festival. I 'googled' it tonight just to see if it still existed. I think I must have been 4 or 5 the last time I went in to early 80's. Thanks for your witty blog. It's great!
Sincerely,
Heather
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