Toad Suck Daze

[Kevin Rector]

I live in a place where they have a festival called Toad Suck Daze. There is a place downtown called Toad Suck Square. Yes, I am not making any of this up.

In fact, hard as it is to believe, our school sends home large cardboard totes for the kids to put their toads in for the toad races. Apparently the kids are supposed to find a toad. I'm not sure how we're going to do that exactly.

I have photographic evidence of the toad tote (as sponsored by HP):

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[Shea Zellweger]

I live in a place where they have a festival called Toad Suck Daze. There is a place downtown called Toad Suck Square. Yes, I am not making any of this up.

In fact, hard as it is to believe, our school sends home large cardboard totes for the kids to put their toads in for the toad races. Apparently the kids are supposed to find a toad. I'm not sure how we're going to do that exactly.

I have photographic evidence of the toad tote (as sponsored by HP):

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So... do they actually suck on these toads...?

[Kevin Rector]

So... do they actually suck on these toads...?

That would be icky. No, they just race them.

Here's where the name comes from:


Long ago, steamboats traveled the Arkansas River when the water was at the right depth. When it wasn't, the captains and their crew tied up to wait where the Toad Suck Lock and Dam now spans the river. While they waited, they refreshed themselves at the local tavern there, to the dismay of the folks living nearby, who said: "They suck on the bottle 'til they swell up like toads." Hence, the name Toad Suck. The tavern is long gone, but the legend and fun live on at Toad Suck Daze.

You can find out more about Toad Suck Daze at: http://www.toadsuck.org (I promise it's a work safe and family safe website :))

[Susan Unger]

I am dying to say "welcome to the South" but I think my southern buddy would kill me :ihe_cowboy:

[Ryan Scott]

I was there last weekend and there's signs all over the highway for "Toad Suck this" and "Toad Suck that." I believe there's even a Toad Suck State Park.

[Kevin Rector]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t-syY7ZH-8

I was rooting him on, my voice comes out pretty loud in the video but it was crazy loud in the gym so I'm not even sure Zeb could hear me. The vast majority of children in the school had toads to race.

[Katelynn Scott]

Kevin, this video is the funniest thing I've seen all week (and I teach middle schoolers!). Thank you SO much for sharing this hilarious part of your community. Where did Zeb end up finding a toad? Love it!

[David Pettigrew]

Let me just warn you that Toad Suck Daze is a big deal. You will not be able to stir the people that show up for this thing with a stick. Do not attempt to go anywhere in Conway unless you are going directly to or away from the festivities.

By the way, my town in Arkansas had Mosquitofest. I'd have loved a festival named for an amphibian.

[Kevin Rector]

We now have a new pet toad named Speedy. We found him behind our house.

[Jon Bemis]

Well, now that you've been to Toad Such Days make sure you get on over to Pickles Gap and have some of their great fudge!

[John Kennedy]

Just another of those places where fact far outstrips fantasy.

[John Kennedy]

Years ago a boastful citizen of Dallas, who admitted that one of the drawbacks of that fair city lay in its not being a seaport, was advised by someone else from that area (perhaps a citizen of Fort Worth?) that if Dallas wanted to be a seaport all that needed to be done was to lay a 2 inch pipeline to the Gulf and, "if you people can suck as hard as you can blow, Dallas'll be a seaport in no time."
I thought of that when I was reading online about the Tulsa Port of Catoosa (the furtherest inland port in the US) - I have this fascination with inland waterways. When I looked at a map of the McClelland-Kerr Arkansas River waterway transport system, I noticed, in the vicinity of Little Rock, the Toad Suck Lock and Dam. In light of the discussion on this thread, I decided to see if I could find out more about Toad Suck.

When I rolled the cursor thingy over the TSL&D (Toad Suck Lock & Dam) I was rewarded by the sound of a frog croaking (leading me to wonder why it isn't Toad Croak rather than Toad Suck). I then retraced by steps (or at least those of the cursor) all the way back down to the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers and tried the same thing with all the other L&D's - no sound effects (and here I'd always wondered what a Pine Bluff sounded like).

There are probably a number of you wondering why this information was posted. It could be a testimony to the wonders of cybertech or the fact that it's a rather slow Sunday afternoon or you name it. Please don't let my wife know - it would only bolster her contention that there are times when I seriously need to consider getting a life.

[Todd Erickson]

There is a sign as you go up 40 to the first Conway exit that reads "Toad Suck". People come from all over the U.S. to have their picture taken by the sign; more people come to steal it. They have to replace it often.

The most difficult thing about Toad Suck Daze (which is usually held the first or 2nd weekend of May) is finding parking. It literally takes over the entire downtown with a giant fair/festival, with more fried foods than you can shake a stick at, arts and crafts, turkey legs, kettle corn, and screaming children.

There's also "stuck on a truck", which has been cut short with a lottery for the past couple of years, disappointingly enough.

[Kevin Rector]

I thought about signing up for Stuck on a Truck until I realized that they stay touching that truck and awake for like 4+ days. While I'd love to get a new truck, it would conflict with my preaching schedule. Of course, I suppose I could just preach at the truck. But considering how much I tend to use my hands when speaking I'd probably get really excited at some point of my sermon and take my hand off the truck. So, I guess I'll skip it.

[Todd Erickson]

And the trucks are never really that fuel efficient. They're just big Ford trucks. Always red.

[Todd Erickson]

It's now predicted that it's going to rain all weekend, which has been the case for the last 3 or 4 toadsucks.

[John Kennedy]

There is a sign as you go up 40 to the first Conway exit that reads "Toad Suck". People come from all over the U.S. to have their picture taken by the sign; more people come to steal it. They have to replace it often.

The most difficult thing about Toad Suck Daze (which is usually held the first or 2nd weekend of May) is finding parking. It literally takes over the entire downtown with a giant fair/festival, with more fried foods than you can shake a stick at, arts and crafts, turkey legs, kettle corn, and screaming children.

There's also "stuck on a truck", which has been cut short with a lottery for the past couple of years, disappointingly enough.
The San Bernardino, CA Sun has a feature in which people vacationing in far away and, presumably, exotic places are invited to have their picture taken in that place holding a San Bernardino SUN. It was for that reason that we carried a front page from the SUN on our cruise so we could have that done in Quebec (don't ever let anybody try to tell you we don't have a purpose in life).
Well, I open this morning's SUN and what do I see but the picture of a woman from a town near here standing at the TOAD SUCK LOCK AND DAM (TSL&D) sign. She had travelled all the way to deepest, darkest Conway, AR for this photo op (never let it be said that she doesn't have a purpose in life). There was no mention in the picture caption of Toad Suck's crowning glory, THE DAZE,