Sunday, July 13, 2008

Manure Flecked



"Manure flecked" and "mud-colored underdog" were terms applied to Willits by a nationally distributed "news"-paper about five or six years ago, when a "reporter" visited here shortly after a Frontier Days parade, all back when some attention was drawn to us by the Laura Hillenbrand book "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" and the subsequent movie. But not wanting to be saddled with the pejorative epithet again, it looks like the Scouts came to the rescue, shovels in hand. Perhaps it was good training for a political career. If you want to find out more about Seabiscuit and Ridgewood Ranch, over the mountains to the south of Willits, please visit the Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation.


11 comments:

Hilda said...

The other side of the parade, huh? I wouldn't even have thought of that problem if you didn't mention it here.

Pat said...

Ha, ha! Love this one. This used to happen in my "other" home of Seattle, when horse-drawn carriages left traces...so now just a short distance under the horse's tail is a catch-all where everythng drops. Good idea.

Thanks for visiting my blog about Radovan's trip to Greece...more to come.

By the way, I'm an Aquarius, too. February 2nd.

Knoxville Girl said...

A scrappy former timber town? Oh, SNAP!
Knoxville had a similar run-in with the Wall Street Journal in the 80s, which I'll post soon.
Hooray for the Scouts - maybe they can become NYT reporters from this experience too. ;-)

Profile Not Available said...

I guess this is a 'behind the scenes' look at the parade?

Please visit my blog today to collect an award...

Anonymous said...

That manure might be the most nutrition that will ever all on your city streets. I am surprised the city fathers didn't think of that and let it lay.

Thanks for visiting my blog today and for the comments you left.

Thanks again.

Abraham Lincoln
Brookville, Ohio

USelaine said...

Hilda - What goes in, must come out!

Bibi - I've seen those crap-catchers, but they don't work so well on un-rigged horses. 8^)

KG - Thanks for that. ;^) Sometimes city paper reporters can be so, well, provincial! Yuk-yuk-har. Wee iz da lokl culler, doncha no.

Kelly - Bike lanes as backstage!

Abraham - Dogs must know something we don't know. They seem to love to eat the stuff. But I'm sure that the Scouts are taking it all someplace where it will be useful. Rose bushes love it.

USelaine said...

And thank you, Kelly!

I'm going to have to give this some thought! Wow!

Louis la Vache said...

Political training, indeed! ;-) "Louis" agrees with you on that one!

* * * *
Eric at Paris Daily Photo had a shot of Mona Lisa, but "Louis" doesn't have to go to Paris to see her!

 gmirage said...

I've seen that movie! This is nice, people get responsible for picking up the left behind trash! =)

Ming the Merciless said...

The horses that pull the carriages in Central Park "deposits" manure all over the streets too. :-)

USelaine said...

Louis - Anyone in top management, diplomacy, Hollywood or pro sports has to learn to sling the stuff, and no harm done with such an open secret. It's all politics.

Mirage - The movie location scout came up here, but this area was not used for filming the movie after all. Being geographically attuned myself, it was distracting for me to see the Transverse Ranges of southern California standing in for Ridgewood Ranch. It just isn't the same. That's showbiz. But a lot of other film and television has been shot in Mendocino county.

Ming - Thank you so much for that! Now I can refer to New York City as a manure flecked, cement-colored overdog. (With apologies to Petrea).