My Wacky Shirt-Winning Story

[captain_slinky]

Last weekend we went to Shipwreck Day in Anacortes. Don't bother Googling it... the only way you'd know about it is if you (a) are from Anacortes or (b) know someone from Anacortes. Anacortes is the small island town that you have to pass through if you're going to take the Ferry to Canada or the San Juan Islands. They have one main street ("Commercial Avenue") and every year the shut-down the bottom twelve blocks of it (roughly 1/4 of the town) and have a huge community Garage Sale/Street Fair.

Legend has it that the tradition started back when Anacortes was a "Boom Town", considered to be every bit as important a sea port as Seattle and Tacoma. A ship full of various nick-nacks and treasures crashed on the shores of Anacortes and they needed money to repair the ship, so they took over the town and set up shop right in the middle of the street selling their wares to the locals and other traders. It was so successfull they decided to come back the next year and do it again! And the tradition continued all the way in to the 60's when the ship no longer showed up, but by then the townsfolk had taken over completely and thus the Annual Shipwreck Day was born! Second Saturday of July every year!

This year we lucked-out and my schedule allowed for us to be there for all the bargains. I got some good comic books and some great records, but my BEST deal of the day was my promotional Firefly "Serenity" T-Shirt! The Anacortes Cinema was having a Rafel where you bought a ticket for $2 and you got entered to win some fabulous prize of some sort, but you ALSO got to spin The Wheel Of Prizes! Options on The Wheel Of Prizes were "No Prize", "Random Poster", "Random Promotional Item" and "Promotional Item of Your Choice".

I usually would not pay $2 for such terrible odds. I don't need any more posters, and I wasn't really interested in any of the promotional items they had there except for one or two items so I was about to just walk on by when an ANNOYING teenage girl walked up to the table and said "Can I spin the wheel for free?"

The person running the table said "Sure, but you won't get anything unless you pay first. And won't you be upset if you spin it and land on the 'Any Item' space?"

The teenage girl sneered and spun the wheel. Sure enough, it landed on "Promotional Item of Your Choice"! She was all excited and said "Oh cool I won what do I get!!!" and the guy running the table said "Well nothing you didn't pay for the spin sorry" and the teenage girl got all snotty about it.

So then I said "I... I'd like to buy her spin, please? Can I buy the spin she just made?"

Dude looked me over, said "Sure, what would you like?"

And THAT ios how I got my Firefly "Serenity" T-Shirt :)

Comments

[nani-ka.livejournal.com]

That is just cool.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Indeed! Not only did i get a nifty shirt, but I *also* got to add to the misery of an angst-ridden snotty teenager!

[nani-ka.livejournal.com]

THAT is just extra cool.

[d-a-r-a.livejournal.com]

That is just priceless...yet it only cost you $2. :)

[supernovame.livejournal.com]

Don't bother googling it eh? That sounds like a challenge to me! I like information treasure hunts on the internet! I can't resist the challenge, but I took your advice and didn't google it, I used dogpile.com...

Here are a few webpages:

A nice article on it, including a bit about a couple who has gone to every one since it started!
http://www.goanacortes.com/articles/2006/07/19/news/news08.txt

Here is the official page, including a participation form you can print and fill out
http://www.anacortes.org/swd_2004.cfm

Here's some photos of this years event, are you in here?
http://www.anacortestoday.com/activities.cfm?id=287#

On this page I found one of the founders of shipwreck day! (I still like the legend idea better)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/162130_jefftake2.html

it's kind of hard to find the info on that page so I will add it here for you:
Houston, Virginia "Ginger", La Conner -- As a small business owner, Houston became active in the Anacortes Chamber of Commerce and chaired the Anacortes Business Committee for two years. She was a founder of Shipwreck Days, which has become an annual event, and she served as the chairwoman of the committee to plan and conduct Anacortes' centennial celebration. In 1991 she sold her store and devoted her time to the restoration of the W.T. Preston, a snag boat that is a local adjunct to the Anacortes Museum.

Here is a mp of where to find Shipwreck Day
http://www.superpages.com/cities/mtg/9071/

The What-the-Heck-fest site mentions Shipwreck Day too
http://www.whattheheckfest.com/shipwreckday

So does Experience Washington
http://www.festivals.com/experiencewa/display_event.aspx?eid=mAUsWe5%2fO%2fQ%3d

actually a lot of sites "mention" it, including some blogs, I won't list them all.

Here is an Anacortes band that made a CD called Shipwreck Day
http://www.knw-yr-own.com/catalog/kyo50.html

The most interesting site to mention Shipwreck day also has everything you never wanted to know about Anacortes, including how it was named after Anna Curtis, wife of the town planner. Also it has a very low crime rate, zero murder and homicides last year.
http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=24655

It looks like it is the 25th annual Shipwreck Day, so maybe the Shipwreck legend started earlier and then they 'Officially' started it later? :)

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Well see, that's kinda my point. I found lots of sites that would *mention* it, but back when I was trying to find any actual info on the upcoming event I was coming up empty. Everything was about Ship Wreck Days of the past. Only way I was able to confirm that it was actually *happening* this year was the mention on the WhatTheHeckFest website! Now that the day has come and gone I'm sure there will be at least a few more links to info about this years event... but what about next year?

Compare it to the massive amounts of links and info regarding the Anacortes Arts & Crafts Festival and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about. To me growing up, Shipwreck Day was SO MUCH BETTER than Arts & Crafts, yet it's the A&C Festival that the citty commerce decides to actually advertise.

[supernovame.livejournal.com]

Ah! Okay. Yeah, nothing on when it is next year. Is it roughly the same time or day? I missed it this year and it sounds pretty nifty! Maybe when it is like a month away it will have something...