Beer to derby rescue?

Thursday, May 06, 2010

By Jake Nichols

Beer to return to Demo Derby
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Booze begets inhibition which leads to exhibition, then prohibition. Coors Light was the downfall of the Teton County fair’s demo derby. Not the streakers, not the Tasers, not the rabbit punches.

The streaking events that marred the demo derby for nearly a decade reached a pinnacle in 2005 when a naked John Rodgers hoisting a fire extinguisher got jolted with 50,000 volts in front of an equally shocked audience of 2,300. A year later, Seamus McKinney – who admitted he had no idea about the previous year – had his ‘ass dash’ tackled by Sheriff’s deputies who convinced him to submit to handcuffs by banging on his kidneys.

The events made every newspaper across the country but signified a more alarming trend: a palpable hostility between hippies and cops. Streaking, much less the car crashing, took a backseat to an “out of control situation that was near to erupting in violence,” according to the mayor.

By 2007, Mayor Mark Barron had had enough. He ordered the plug pulled on beer sales and the trick worked like a lobotomy.The show became fit for families again, but in the three-year probation period it became stale.

The Fair Board was also missing the $19,000 in malt revenue that kept the fair in clowns, pony rides, and prize buckles. Monday night’s pitch to put Bud Light back in the derby went pretty much like the commercials – “Here we go.”

“I think we should talk about beer sales,” Bob Lenz said. “How are you going to control re-entry, for instance?”

Fair Board member Bill Lewkowitz addressed the panel deftly explaining at least 20 security officers, on-duty law enforcers, and TIPS-trained Rotary Club members would all make sure no one was sneaking off to their Subaru for ‘Peebers.’
With the Mayor’s blessing and request that media outlets like JH Weekly don’t sensationalize the more seedy aspects of the famed Sunday night fender-bender, the motion passed unanimously to allow the Fair to suds up the smash-‘em-up.
Oops.

In more wholesome business
Several Eagle Scouts were honored for their recent community service. Terri King received a proclamation for her longstanding childcare services in Jackson, and town legal eagle Audrey Cohen-Davis got props for her work as president of the Teton County Bar Association. Cohen-Davis reminded everyone to remember free legal advice night, 5 to 8 p.m., May 18.

Old West Days will feature the new addition of a beer garden placed close enough to the Chili Cook-off to get quick relief.

“It will be right across from Mountain Trails Gallery where the UPS truck was ‘til we moved it,” Maureen Murphy said.

“I never noticed the UPS truck before,” Barron said. “That’s why we moved it.”JHW


PERMALINK:
Beer to derby rescue? | Planet JH News Article: Council Chronicles

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