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A Dirty Shame

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Posted by LeviLovR on September 18, 2023 at 01:52:44

Two recent mud events have left me deeply disappointed.

First, on Saturday of our Labor Day weekend, I went to the 4x4 proving grounds mud around. A lot has changed since I was there at the last event in July. First, the price of admission had increased by $5.00. This was to help defray the rising cost of insurance and cost of improvements and construction at the venue itself. This year a whole new section was opened up for "free wheeling" that is quite large with obstacles and mud holes of varying sizes. Vehicles go through there very fast! If I owned a four wheeled vehicle I would probably love it, but as a person on foot looking for a good wallow it's not exactly the safest place to be. Last time I was there they had a security person trying to get control of things and slow people down a bit, but he was definitely not very popular. I saw no such person there this time. I did manage to find some super mud off to the side where there was minimal traffic and had a super nice wallow and got good and covered. Then time to clean off. Another surprise! The main arena is surrounded by a large dirt bern. On the back side there was a road running parallel to the river that went to the wash area. This road used to get good and muddy as well and made a nice stop for a final wallow before washing off. GONE!!! They had hauled in tons of dirt and widened the bern so that it totally obliterated the old road and a new wider road ran across the top of the bern down to the wash area. Again, better for the 4 wheel vehicles but not for pedestrian mud wallowers. And the wash area was not functioning, there was no place to hose off. I was told that at the last event some drunk people had thrown the pump in the river and broken it and it had not been replaced. At least the river was still there so I jumped in and washed off the mud there. Good thing as otherwise I would have been up the creek! Due to all the changes I am not sure whether I want to go back again or not.

Last weekend was Mud Bowl in North Conway, New Hampshire. HUGE disappointment. I have attended this event since 1981 and can only say this was probably the worst year ever. The mud was very watery. I did not get into it at all. It was more like a dirty lake. For those of you who don't know it's American style football played in the mud to raise money for charity. The playing field is on what was basically an old swampy field. Due to the extreme amount of rain this year the ground would not absorb any more water and it was soft and squishy even beyond the perimeter of the actual playing field.

I have been disgruntled with the current management for several years, particularly one woman. I went basically to see some old friends, which I did. Unfortunately there was a pall over the entire event this year. Everyone was complaining about this woman and everyone was dissatisfied with how things were being run. Even her closest friends had distanced themselves from her. In short attendance of spectators was way down and the parade on Saturday was not well attended and did not have the usual number of participants. Word on the grapevine is that the event may not even happen within the next year or two. It's been running for nearly fifty years and it would be a dirty shame if it doesn't at least make it to its fiftieth anniversary. But it definitely needs a shot of adrenaline with some new blood and some new ideas if it is going to survive.

I said I did not get muddy. Not completely true. I no longer perform in the mud as current management does everything possible to prevent that from happening. However I have worked on the "Chain Gang" helping measure distances and although I had not planned to do even that I did get roped into assisting on one game. I had taken off my shoes (they would have been sucked off anyway) and after the game sat down in a folding chair to put the shoes back on. Ground was so soft the chair collapsed and sent me sprawling in the mud. Que sera, sera! I just hope things can somehow be fixed and that Mud Bowl can get back the spirit that it used to have, but everyone was unhappy that I talked with this year. On a positive note the original organizers and players I started with are having a reunion in October and I have been invited. Should be fun and I am looking forward to it.



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