Greasy Pole

Ah, the famous Greasy Pole! After nearly 23 years here the motivation to soak up more of Gloucester took me down to watch day one of the Greasy Pole sporting event, as they call it. It was the most fun I've had on Cape Ann. The drama, the excitement. Really.

The beach is covered with people standing to watch. They didn't even bring chairs. I sat next to a second generation Sicilian American live long Gloucester man of 65 who explained the whole event to me. The first round the 52 "walkers" are not allowed to go after capturing the flag at the end. They are trying to walk the length of this bouncy greased pole to get that flag. Jim told me a foot thick of grease is slathered on the pole each morning during Fiesta. If you look carefully at the images you might see the jagged grease line towards the far end of the pole.

Jim walked the pole once. Unfortunately he slipped and landed on his family jewels and said he was sore for a week so he never walked again. I asked him what you win on Sunday, the most important day of the event. You get $250., a cross blessed by the Bishop and bragging rights. Jim said this year "professional walkers" have come from Italy to walk on Sunday.

There sure was a lot of slipping, sliding and spectacular falling yesterday when I watched. After the first run through the grease starts to wear down so the walkers get more traction. About a third of the way through the second round, Jim leaned over and said one of the next 5 walkers would take the flag. Sure enough, number 3 did it. When a walker wins, the others all jump off the platform and swim to him, lift him on their shoulders and carry him to the St. Peter's Club. Somehow I miss calculated their route and wasn't fast enough to get a picture. There's always Sunday.

If I were an anthropologist, I would tell you about the mating ritual aspect to this whole Fiesta. The walkers are all young, buff (for the most part) men usually mid to late teens. They hoot and holler out their on that platform. While on shore there are all these young beautiful girls dressed up with flowers in their hair. I was completely taken with this aspect of Fiesta. If I think about it though, Fiesta exists to praise St. Peter for protecting our fisherman and the not so hidden agenda seems to be to ensure procreation so we have more fishermen! Fascinating.