Doyle Days

Our neighbors bought the Winge's grocery store/hotel in Doyle in January. When we stopped by to see what they were doing, Eileen talked me into signing up for a booth at Doyle Days. And now it's Doyle Days.

The day begins with a parade. Doyle is a Northern California railroad town that time almost forgot, but not quite. Lassen County is populated with the truly forgotten towns - Termo, Wendel, Standish, Ravendale. At least Doyle still has a post office. It's in California. We live right on the stateline in Nevada and are ten miles south. If you look at a map, we are where California and Nevada abut.

All parade participants toss candy and everyone scrambles for it.

The parade is at 10:00, followed at 11:00 by the three-man outhouse races. This team is the winner this year - The Reading Room. The rules declare that a crew shall consist of 3 members: 2 pushers, driver, rider, and/or 2 alternates - All of whom should be of basic humanoid ancestry. No dogs or other animals that cannot make a reasonable choice may not ride in or push/pull the outhouse. There is a long list of specifications but I like: Minimum size - 8 square feet; Outhouse must be completely enclosed with an operating door - Curtain closure OK; Outhouse must contain a toilet seat, roll of toilet paper and be a functional outhouse; Steering and brakes are optional.

Lizard races follow at noon, and it's all about boys and lizards.

A boy releases his lizard onto the black disk in the center of the ring and at that moment the timer starts. When the lizard reaches the ring wall, time stops. I heard times varying between 1.7 seconds, upward to 12 seconds. This event went on for over 90 minutes! I was starting to feel sorry for the lizards.

The next event is the frozen t-shirt contest.

The first person to thaw and wear their frozen t-shirt is the winner, not as easy as it sounds. A couple dozen people tackled this challenge.

I got a kick out of this craft booth. We give ours away.

I realized quickly that it was not a good venue for crafters. At the last minute I had tossed some wool and drop spindles into a basket so ended up doing more spinning demonstration than anything else. I met fun people and enjoyed the day, but I was really happy to be home and put my feet up.

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