Some dates we never forget; birthday, 9-11, the first time you saw Seam play live at the Lounge Ax. Thursday, November 12, 1970 will be one of those days for Mr. Walter Umenhofer. While Neil Armstrong walked on the moon only months before, this was the day Mr. Umenhofer's Oldsmobile was crushed by a 300 pound chunk of falling whale blubber in a Florence, OR. parking lot. He just happened to be there on business. That's something you remember.
A few days earlier, a dead sperm whale was spit out by the Pacific ocean and found its final resting place on the sandy shores of an Oregon beach. And there it lay. And stunk. And laid and stunk a few days more. Because the beach was a public right of way and, presumably, no one else wanted to deal with a decomposing whale carcass, the duty of its disposal fell upon the Oregon Highway Dept. Since they didn't have much dead whale dispersal experience, they decided to do what they did know how to do...blow it up.
A few days earlier, a dead sperm whale was spit out by the Pacific ocean and found its final resting place on the sandy shores of an Oregon beach. And there it lay. And stunk. And laid and stunk a few days more. Because the beach was a public right of way and, presumably, no one else wanted to deal with a decomposing whale carcass, the duty of its disposal fell upon the Oregon Highway Dept. Since they didn't have much dead whale dispersal experience, they decided to do what they did know how to do...blow it up.
Plans were drawn, a crew was brought in and a trench was dug. Said trench was filled with 20 strategically placed crates holding 50lbs. of TNT each. A crowd gathered to watch the OHD blow the whale back into the ocean. What was left, they figured, would be easily cleaned up by the seagulls. So they exploded the 8 ton whale and, as they say about the best-laid plans, things went awry.
The event went on to become legendary. I had never heard of it until this week. Fortunately, for me and you, the whole bloody mess was captured on film by the local news. It's got to be the oldest "viral video" I've ever seen. I've watched it 4 times and even just now I laughed out loud thinking about it. My favorite line from the whole fiasco:
"Fortunately no humans were hit as bad as the car. However, everyone on the scene was covered in small particles of dead whale."
I just saw this video a week ago! Reminds me of something Second South would have done.
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