The Meat of the Matter

The Annual Smoker

The picture is of Cave Junction when I lived there in 1973. Between the ages of 11-13, I lived in a really great Oregon town called Cave Junction. I truly do have a lot of happy memories from that place, and I would love to go back. But today at work I was suddenly hit on the side of the head--as if by a proverbial frying pan--with the memory of our "Annual Smoker Event." The Annual Smoker consisted of the entire town gathering in the high school gym to watch everyone beat the shit out of each other. - All the fighters wore boxing gloves. - Fighters who did not request a specific person to have a bout with were matched with similarly sized/aged/gendered people. - There was lots of blood, and although the event was designed "settle feuds" (I was told this didn't really occur anymore), it actually started feuds. - There was hours and hours of watching this going on. I remember how brutal it felt to me even when I was in the 7th grade. - I remember watching grown women beating the crap out of each other and feeling completely shocked by it. I wonder if good ol' CJ still has the annual Smoker? They probably don't, but probably raised a big stink when they discontinued it. This post has been brought to you by the committee to stop blogging about the President.