NEW YEAR BABY CONTEST CANCELLED AMIDST
PANDEMIC
City in a tizzy
Pottsville City officials met late into the night at zoom meeting to discuss the fate of one of its most beloved events – the annual New Year Baby Contest. For nearly 200 years the contest brought tears to the eyes of both mothers and reluctant fathers, who all vied for a chance to win prizes donated from downtown merchants. Records indicate that in 1827 the chief burgess proclaimed that the town would reward fertility on the beginning of every calendar year with modest prizes awarded. Miss Priscilla Boyer, the first recipient, received a quart of sauerkraut, lace-trimmed pantaloons, two candlesticks and dinner for two at the White Horse Tavern. The father, a nameless itinerant peddler, would have received a brass spittoon but it was never claimed. The spittoon was eventually escheated to the state where it sits today in a corner.
With the COVID-19
virus enveloping the nation, the weary Pottsville Surgeon General held a press
conference on March 18th from his booth at the old Eagles Club on
South Second Street, still strewn with tattered St. Patrick’s Day decorations. He crushed his cigarette and told the
reporters that he was recommending social distancing - a practice that would obviously make
conception much more difficult. He also
announced that people should follow his example and drink alone, releasing a
catchy slogan, “If the virus makes you cough and groan, don’t fret and just drink
alone” before rambling into his theory on the curative
effects of boilo. When pressed on the
cancellation of social events, he took a wait and see attitude on the future of
the New Year Baby Contest and Senior Olympics.
The cancellation of the 2021
New Year Baby Contest immediately sent shockwaves throughout the city. At its peak in the 1970s hundreds would camp
outside the Pottsville Hospital for several days and nights waiting for the winner
to be announced and hoping to catch a glimpse of the baby; with many of the men
curious as to who the baby looked like in a time before the discovery of dna testing. The contest was also good for the local
economy as the numerous downtown bookies worked overtime as thousands placed bets
on whether the baby would be a girl or a boy ( a practice now outlawed), the height
and weight of the child, color of the eyes, and the number of hairs on the baby’s
head.
The cancellation is especially difficult on many young girls who already are in the dark wondering if their school
would reopen. And now this.
