Originally posted July 15, 2009.
I’m a little more than surprised that 11 days after the Marsh Mallow fights of 2009 have ended, that the mess at Veteran’s Rock still remains.
While myself and 15 others that took the “Do you think the annual 4th of July Marshmallow Fight should be ended?” poll right here in the O.B. Rag have no interest in seeing the M.M. fights/wars continue, a whopping 40 + people are either still in favor of continuing this tradition or need to study the issue more.
Well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words so here’s what it still looks like down there after all of that “fun” has subsided.
The good news is that the 40 people that are still for it should have no problem cleaning it up for the rest of us that really want no part of it. I mean if members and readers of the O.B. Rag are so opposed to the graffiti that disgraced our cliffs, how can they sit by and let this mess remain?
That’s my rant and I’m literally sticking to it!
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks Frank, I wasn’t sure if you’d put this piece up or not because I know that I’m in the minority when it comes to my view on the M.M. fights/wars.
While there’s only been hearsay evidence connecting what happened to Chris Bowd with an alleged argument earlier at the M.M. fights, seeing what a mess it still is down there hasn’t softened my stance on why the M.M. fights/wars continue.
However, if folks want to carry on with what some consider an O.B. tradition, I would only ask that they please make sure and clean up all of the mess afterwards.
My wife and I used Mr. Clean magic pads to clean the circles as part of our Memorial Day observance so I am not all that happy with M.M. fights but sticky goo will need heat. OB VFW should call the city.
I was appaled when I first saw the beach Sunday morning the 5th. Thousands of sandy goo coverd clumps all over the beach. What a disgrace. I was totally embarrassed when company in town went for a short walk on the beach and came back with ruined flip flops. Then we started to walk up newport and the gooey blobs were all the way up newport. It brings new meaning to the words: ” Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups”
It is all in good fun ( not clean) until a semi drunk person gets hit in the face or his girlfriend does, then its on….and things get sideways real fast…it happens all the time.
As far as clean up. I have 20 years experince in pressure washing I am sure a hot water pressure cleaning will remove the stuff. It will also remove the paint/stain from the area around the rock. Scraping will leave marks. There are some cleaners designed to remove sticky items , but testing will be required to determine results. Maybe the City will send a crew down to clean the mess up……yeah right.
This is really bad. I haven’t been down to that area since the morning of the 4th as I’ve been spending the majority of my free time cleaning up after the jerkl-offs who think our cliffs are their trash can. What is wrong with people? What makes someone think that throwing trash of any sort on the ground is ok to do? I’m baffled. And to essentially desecrate a memorial to our veterans is shameful.
Originally I marked the survey as “let’s get volunteers to make sure it stays mellow.” But I’m really having second thoughts. It was once a fun local thing. But it has spread like a virus from a single group of fun lovin locals at a fire pit to an all out battle across the entire beach. And Jim makes a great point. All it takes is one drunk guy to get hit in the face with a mallow and “it’s on!” Then people get hurt (Dr. Bowd?) and out of control. This year in particular seems to have taken a turn for the worse. OB has and always will have a live & let live attitude. But where do you draw the line? I say the line gets drawn when our village starts getting destroyed.
haha…I said jerkl-off.
OK Jim G, scraping is NOT the way to go, thanks for the heads up. I’d hate to see any more damage done.
John S, that’s a beautiful thing for you and your wife to do on Memorial Day, God bless you both.
“haha…I said jerkl-off.”
LOL, yes you did Jon. Is that some sort of new industrial cleaner that you’ve found out about?
i havent really been paying attention to details and ideosynchrasies lately I guess, because I haven’t noticed how big a mess this still is.
The marshmallow fight should only be allowed to continue if there is a LARGE contingency of volunteers who agree to clean everything up the next day. I know there are oceanic/surf/beach organizations that help with beach clean ups, but this is a specifically OB issue – even if many of the marshmallow throwers and throwees are not from OB – and only people involved should be cleaning it up.
thanks dave for pointing out such a sticky mess.
I’ve wonder how many sick seagulls there are following the MM fight… and the resulting dia-guano… eeeewwww.
Personally, after the MM Fight, I did stick around (no pun intended) and picked up an entire shopping bag of sandy, smooshed MM’s off the beach….yet, as far as I remember, I was the only one. I know I did my part, but I’m only one person.
Where were all the others after this was all over? Did no one else stop for a moment and try to clean up after a (free, mindy you) free-for-all?
Should the MM’s Fights continue or not, I will continue to pick up MM’s, calously discarded cigarette butts, and other misc trash I see around town. I simply don’t want to see it go to ruins. This is my town, and I’m sticking to it!
And how did the MM Fight get all the way down to the Veteran’s Memorial anyway? The police let it go on there? Then they should be the ones to clean up the mess they gave permission for.
Sunshine, I’m curious if the mess at the veterans memorial is not necessarily from the fight happening down there, but from the shoes of everyone tracking marshmallow goo down the sidewalk. That actually seems more likely huh?
The mess at the rock is from MM being stepped on and ground in…..as is the mess going up newport…the fight esclated up the street ……none of it matters its a giant mess …trying to figure it out or rationalize anything is a mute point. People can be slobs and figure somebody else will pick up their s#*%…makes me sick. If I were to have done that as a kid and left a giant mess……well lets just say my Dad would have made sure I never repeated that conduct !
Lets just clean it and move forward.
fyi i cleaned the voltaire st parking lot fri july 3 and then again sun the 5 as well as voltaire st back up to bacon. . it really wasnt in to bad of shape , the beach did look pretty good too compared to years with alcohol . one thing that gets me is monday morning i was out in front of my house picking up somebody elses dog waste and a surfrider pulled up on his bike and said surfrider beach clean-up lets go….i laughed and said where were you guys sunday? what up with that?
A job very well done ilovetheoutdoors! I do know that Surfrider decided to do the clean up on Monday this year since the entire weekend was packed with beach goers. Instead of sending out the masses in their network on Sunday morning only to have another 100,000 tourists mess it all up again, they chose Monday as their all out clean up day in order to maximize their efforts with the large group of volunteers they are able to assemble. That works for them, but it’s also important for people like you and I and other locals and concerned citizens to keep up on a daily basis. Great job, and Thank you!!!
Marshmallows are made out of gelatin; gelatin is made from the ground up hooves of animals and a byproduct of factory farming. Basically we’re all tracking around dead animal bits, hidden under the guise of happy, white as the driven snow, fluff. Toast them, toss them in a sweet potato casserole, or use them to top off your cocoa, but please, keep them off the beach. We’ve got enough to deal with when the giant squids come to town. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/17/giant-squid-attack-san-diego-divers