Oklahoma Town Makes Hay From Day Circus Didn't Play
May 04, 2011
This weekend, Wetumka, Okla., will celebrate its most embarrassing moment. The occasion: In 1950, a stranger who called himself F. Casanova Fernandez promised Wetumka a circus. He sold advance tickets and ads in the circus program and told local merchants to order hay for the circus elephants. Mindful of details, he asked the local Wide-A-Wake Cafe to have food ready for 38 circus workers and arranged their accommodations at Meador's Hotel. The day of the circus came around, but no circus came. Mr. Fernandez didn't return, nor did several hundred dollars of the town's money. ``We were the biggest suckers in the world,'' says Bobby Cary, president of the Bank of Commerce in Wetumka. But Wetumka decided to have fun anyway. The local bigwigs declared ``Let's just give all the kids hot dogs and pop free,'' says Keeler Buster, now 78 years old. At the time, he was a clerk for the merchant who got stuck with the load of elephant hay. Thus was born Sucker Day, which has been celebrated nearly every year since 1950. This year, in the tradition of the first Sucker Day, a church will give away free lemonade, and paraders will toss out -- what else -- candy suckers. There will be a fair on Main Street, an auto show, a foot race, a country-western street dance and a horseshoe-throwing tournament -- big doings for a town of 1,700 people. It isn't clear what happened to Mr. Fernandez. Local legend has it that he pulled the same trick in Andrews, Texas. Some say he was arrested in Missouri -- and that he was later invited to be the grand marshal of Wetumka's Sucker Day Parade. As the story goes, he said he would come if the town sent him money for a bus ticket; the townspeople declined. As for Wetumka, its old brick roads are now bumpy and many Main Street storefronts are empty. Few citizens remember the original Sucker Day. ``Who was here then? A lot of 'em are out in the cemetery,'' says Ervin Hettie, a longtime resident. Still, Sucker Day is ``the best thing that ever happened to us as a community,'' says Jimmy Tayna, president of the Chamber of Commerce, which helps sponsor the event. It brings in business from neighboring towns like Weleetka and Okemah and raises people's spirits, Mr. Tayna says. Besides, he adds, ``If you can't laugh at yourself and move on down the road, then what are you going to do?''
