Hustisford: The Village that Time Forgot

Every New Year's Day since about 1967 this village comes alive and the young warriors of the village of Hustisford, somewhere in rural Wisconsin, play a tackle football game in the ice and snow without pads or helmets. No one remembers the score after the game, or even what the original purpose of the Toilet Bowl was. From this vantage point in time and with the advantage not ever having played in the game it seems reasonable to me to suggest that the not always ironic Wisconsinites were having a little fun at the expense of the large number of college football bowls that were just getting underway. I guess they were a little premature in their irony.

The game is usually preceded by a parade of worthies of various sorts with toilet rolls being thrown unabashedly by people on the floats and bystanders. Usually a queen is elected. I think my mother ran one year and with the help of a lot of stuffed ballots she won. I wonder if I can find a video of that one?

The buildings on Lake St (aka Main St) were all there as I was growing up. I delivered the Milwaukee Sentinel to a lot of them. How about the clean-up after the parade. These are good citizens.