The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1947-09-05
BY LOWRY
APP NeWsfeature Writer

sneak down the back streets of
Green Bay, Wis. They can't
stand the sight of so many sad
faces.
That's because Green Bay is
a town with a hobby and the
fortunes of the Green Bay
Packers are the direct concern
of almost the entire popula-
ton,
There are hobby towns all
over the United States, ir
which a single project, game
or legend is the avocation of
almost everyone.
Hobby towns are happy
towns. Catching tourists is only
an incidental ~by-product.
Consider Prescott, Ariz., and
its annual Snake Dances. Back
in 1921 a group of local resi-
dents decided to put on an en-
tertainment. Part of it was to be
a burlesque of the old Hopi
Indian snake dances.
Something happened that
switched the project from buff
foonery to a serious imitation
and a hobby was born. The stu
dents of Indian lore banded to-
gether as an organization called
the "Shoki people" Waving
live snakes and limiting that
their rituals will bring rain, the
Smoki present their dances an
nually before large crowds.
Ethnologists who have seen
the Smoki performances say it
is hard to tell between the
Hopi Mccoy and the white
mans facsimile.
Seventeen years ago the
Gainesville, Tex, amateur
theater was on its last, shaky
legs. The little theater enthu-
lasts decided to give a burles-
que circus to put the project
in the black. That was the
birth of a famous town hobby,
the Gainesville community cir
Gus.
High school kids do the tum-
bier act, the undertaken takes
tickets, a railroad switchman
does a trapeze act. It's a real
circus, complete with home
trained animal acts, high-wire
performers and a troupe of
clowns. Last year it Melted $685.
900.
Apart from the financial re-
turns, Gainsville's happy hobby
has brought about decline in
juvenile delinquency. 1t has
united a town of 10000 in a
common cause, providing year
round physical exercise for
young and old performers.
Roanoke Island, N. c., is a
whole hobby land. Ten years
ago someone wrote a symptom
ic drama, 1.-THE Lost Colony"
about the founding of the Eng
lish colony on the Island $50
years before and retold the
story of Virginia Dare. The is
land folk whose daily language
still sounds like Elizabethan
English, put on an amateur pro-
duction for their own delight.
Today the big show-an IN
nual affair-draws crowds from
all over the United States.
When the open-air Waterside
Theater burned this summer,
in mid-season, volunteers by
the score appeared to rebuild it
in jig time so the show could
60 on.
Most rodeos are small town
picnics where the local boys
and girls show how good they
are. Around Cody, Wyo., for in
stance, ranchers and their fam
lilies spend plenty of time in the
early Summer polishing up sad
dies and chaps and practicing
bulldogging. Then at the July
roundup, men and women,
young and old, perform with
only a handful of competition
from outsiders.
The hobby of Bemidji, Mimi,
is spinning tall tales about
Paul Bunyan, the lumberman's
hero, and Babe, the Blue Ok.
Bemidji is headquarters for
Bunyan lore and an annual
celebration.
New Orleans has its Mardi
Gras, a festival which is one
of Americas great off-season
february attractions for tour
lists, vying with ski centers and
Florida beaches.
Long before the big show
held an important spot in trav-
ell agents pamphlets, the resi-
dents of the old French city in
Louisiana held their traditional
blowout. The Mardi Gras,
which literally means Fat Tues
day, is a carnival with roots
deep in Old World legends.
st. Petersburg, Fla, a semi
tropic Valhalla for retired men:
.b,.fflohoord Tbo oitu hoe