Not every town raises money by hosting wrought-iron bed races every summer or auctioning off fiberglass cows, but then not every town is Puyallup, Wash. (pop. 33,011).
In this community, just south of Seattle, the “Daffodil 200” bed race is serious business; the kind where five-man teams sprint madly 200 yards around the South Hill Mall parking lot, pushing a bed and rider to the finish line. Consolation is given to the team sputtering in dead last. They get the aptly named “Slug Award.”
Perhaps even more intense than the race itself is the battle for best-decorated bed. While the younger crowd puts its muscle into running, the town’s businesses prefer to team up and outdo each other in the decorating arena.
The bed race raises money for the Puyallup Community Float, a participant in the San Diego Holiday Bowl Parade for the last six years. Every year, 15 to 20 teams compete in the odd race.
“It’s good clean family entertainment,” says organizer Terry Asbjornsen, who has run the event for 16 years.
At last year’s annual bed race, nothing was left to chance. Sponsors recruited area high school football teams to pound the asphalt and accelerate the beds. South Hill Mall recruited members of the Central Washington University track team for their speed. Even the Puyallup firefighters showed up, ready to rumble, arriving with their own lightweight bed—a custom-made racer of tubular steel. The other teams weren’t real worried. Firefighters might look good, but they’re no match for a bunch of 18-year-olds.
Francesco Revel, a student visitor from Paris, France, was enlisted by his host family, the Yanasaks, to participate. Prior to the race, held the third Saturday in August, it was clear Revel, 18, didn’t quite know what to make of it all.
“I have to think about it,” he finally answered.
All this good-natured wackiness seems appropriate in Puyallup, known for its many auto dealers and for being the home of Washington state’s largest fair—the Western Washington State Fair. The event features outstanding scones (baked biscuits packed with butter and raspberry jam; 800,000 scones were sold during the 17-day fair in 2000), racing pigs, Spam cooking contests, and huge prize pumpkins, some weighing in at 300 pounds. Last year, the fair raised $10,700 for its scholarship fund by auctioning off Cowabunga Cows—life-sized fiberglass cows painted in outrageous colors and designs that dotted Puyallup’s downtown all summer.
Ezra Meeker, the community’s first mayor in 1890, named the town after the Puyallup tribe, which means “generous people.” An extraordinary pioneer, Meeker wrote novels, brought hops to the valley (he was once called Hop King of the World), and recognized the importance of the Oregon Trail before many others. He died in 1928, at 97, and might well have excelled in the bed races.
Such a thought wasn’t lost on last August’s race. One team decided Meeker was the perfect subject for the decorated bed theme, “Imagine This.” The team cross-pollinated the town’s founder with the Cowabunga Cows and came up with “Imagine if Ezra was Santa Claus, the cows would be reindeer.” A rival team named their theme bed, “Imagine if the Mariners Win the World Series.”
Old Ezra won the decoration contest.
To the surprise of everyone, the firefighters were clocking the fastest time, until two team members were called off to an emergency right during the race. The Puyallup High School football team then pulled ahead, with the firemen coming in second.
Revel and his host family scored the Slug Award.
“It’s crazy,” Revel said, searching for the right English words to describe his bed race debut. “It’s paranormal.”
Then again, this is Puyallup.
Not every town raises money by hosting wrought-iron bed races every summer or auctioning off fiberglass cows, but then not every town is Puyallup, Wash. (pop. 33,011).
In this community, just south of Seattle, the “Daffodil 200” bed race is serious business; the kind where five-man teams sprint madly 200 yards around the South Hill Mall parking lot, pushing a bed and rider to the finish line. Consolation is given to the team sputtering in dead last. They get the aptly named “Slug Award.”
Perhaps even more intense than the race itself is the battle for best-decorated bed. While the younger crowd puts its muscle into running, the town’s businesses prefer to team up and outdo each other in the decorating arena.
The bed race raises money for the Puyallup Community Float, a participant in the San Diego Holiday Bowl Parade for the last six years. Every year, 15 to 20 teams compete in the odd race.
“It’s good clean family entertainment,” says organizer Terry Asbjornsen, who has run the event for 16 years.
At last year’s annual bed race, nothing was left to chance. Sponsors recruited area high school football teams to pound the asphalt and accelerate the beds. South Hill Mall recruited members of the Central Washington University track team for their speed. Even the Puyallup firefighters showed up, ready to rumble, arriving with their own lightweight bed—a custom-made racer of tubular steel. The other teams weren’t real worried. Firefighters might look good, but they’re no match for a bunch of 18-year-olds.
Francesco Revel, a student visitor from Paris, France, was enlisted by his host family, the Yanasaks, to participate. Prior to the race, held the third Saturday in August, it was clear Revel, 18, didn’t quite know what to make of it all.
“I have to think about it,” he finally answered.
All this good-natured wackiness seems appropriate in Puyallup, known for its many auto dealers and for being the home of Washington state’s largest fair—the Western Washington State Fair. The event features outstanding scones (baked biscuits packed with butter and raspberry jam; 800,000 scones were sold during the 17-day fair in 2000), racing pigs, Spam cooking contests, and huge prize pumpkins, some weighing in at 300 pounds. Last year, the fair raised $10,700 for its scholarship fund by auctioning off Cowabunga Cows—life-sized fiberglass cows painted in outrageous colors and designs that dotted Puyallup’s downtown all summer.
Ezra Meeker, the community’s first mayor in 1890, named the town after the Puyallup tribe, which means “generous people.” An extraordinary pioneer, Meeker wrote novels, brought hops to the valley (he was once called Hop King of the World), and recognized the importance of the Oregon Trail before many others. He died in 1928, at 97, and might well have excelled in the bed races.
Such a thought wasn’t lost on last August’s race. One team decided Meeker was the perfect subject for the decorated bed theme, “Imagine This.” The team cross-pollinated the town’s founder with the Cowabunga Cows and came up with “Imagine if Ezra was Santa Claus, the cows would be reindeer.” A rival team named their theme bed, “Imagine if the Mariners Win the World Series.”
Old Ezra won the decoration contest.
To the surprise of everyone, the firefighters were clocking the fastest time, until two team members were called off to an emergency right during the race. The Puyallup High School football team then pulled ahead, with the firemen coming in second.
Revel and his host family scored the Slug Award.
“It’s crazy,” Revel said, searching for the right English words to describe his bed race debut. “It’s paranormal.”
Then again, this is Puyallup.
