The Red Flannel Festival

In 2009, all WU readers are commanded to attend Michigan's Red Flannel Festival, where natives parade in public in their longjohns.

Here's the history of the tradition, taken from the Festival's homepage.

It all began in 1936 in the midst of "the worst winter in years." The whole country suffered in the grip of heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures. A New York feature writer bemoaned the "fact" that, "Here we are in the midst of an old- fashioned winter and there are no red flannels in the USA to go with it."

The local newspaper, The Cedar Springs Clipper, owned and edited by "The Clipper Gals" Nina Babcock and Grace Hamilton answered the writer with a RED HOT editorial stating: "Just because Sak's Fifth Avenue does not carry red flannels, it doesn't follow that no one in the country does. CEDAR SPRINGS' merchants have red flannels!"

The story was picked up by The Associated Press and orders began pouring in from all over the USA.

Seeing the possibility of at least a few years of publicity because of our famous “drop seaters" and lumbering history, a "RED FLANNEL DAY" was planned for the fall of 1939. After the closure of the Red Flannel Factory in 1994, the citizens became concerned as to the fate of their beloved Red Flannels and of the Red Flannel Festival. However, due to the love of their community legacy, volunteers rallied to keep the Red Flannel Festival tradition alive. It has continued to be an annual event, held the last weekend in September and the first weekend in October. The production of Red Flannel garments was reestablished and they are available to purchase in Cedar Springs.


And here are some shots from early on, courtesy of the Life Photo Archive

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     Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 02, 2009
     Category: Customs | Holidays | Parades and Festivals | Regionalism | Fetishes | Underwear | 1940s





Comments
Paul, as you command me to get my butt to Mich. where can I pick-up my ticket? I'll also need a clothing allowance as we don't do SN0W here.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 02/02/09 at 10:22 AM
Am I the only one that automatically thought of the Family Guy episode where Peter has his red footie pajamas?
Posted by KW in Dallas, TX on 02/02/09 at 10:53 AM
That woman is kinda sexy in hers.
Posted by AGFH on 02/02/09 at 11:11 AM
I'm with you AGFH. She has kind of a Bettie Page vibe going. I like that.
Posted by DownCrisis on 02/02/09 at 02:10 PM
you will get more interaction with the rest of the regular posters as you get to the more current posts joey. the older posts tend to be pagued by spammers and we don't always check out new comments. welcome aboard! 😊 bet you look cute in your footie pj's. 😉
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 07/09/09 at 10:09 PM
Thanks you. Very good post.Unless they can offer a really compelling reason for users to come back, it will be the next Bebo, MySpace
Posted by Tel Aviv Short Term Rentals on 03/28/12 at 05:31 PM
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