Betty Osincup recounts changes in Ridiculous Days

WASHINGTON — Washington resident Betty Osincup remembers the city’s first Ridiculous Days 75 years ago differently from today’s celebrations.

“We don’t have the kinds of businesses around the square now to do what Ridiculous Days was set out to do,” she said. “Originally it was for the merchants to put out their merchandise that they couldn’t get rid of, and they had to put ridiculous prices on it to get rid of their non-salable merchandise, but then it burgeoned out into a lot more than that.”

Osincup’s family business, a drugstore, had only been open for eight months by the first Ridiculous Days, however. They didn’t have old enough old merchandise to participate at first.

“Our merchandise was all new, we didn’t have it outside,” she said. “And I didn’t work down there, I was busy in the home taking care of three small children.”

Still, she said her husband joined the parade in its first year, despite the family not yet owning a car.

“He somehow got an old wagon with a horse to pull it … and he dressed up like a traveling drug salesman,” she said. “I remember even seeing it.”

Eventually, Osincup got more involved. She started making costumes for the store employees every year.

“A lot of the fun was dressing up in crazy costumes and having a contest,” she said. “I used to make costumes for our store every year … there was about 10 or 12, and we had a lot of fun putting things together.”

While she hasn’t attended in several years, Osincup will be among the honored guests in the parade this year. She said the proposal came as a surprise.

“They’re talking me into it, I really didn’t think they’d want to see a 102-year-old woman riding around in a convertible,” she said. “But the Chamber thought since I was one of the originals that I should do it.”

Osincup said she hoped the big day would draw turnouts on par with the event’s earlier years.

“I’m hoping this will be kind of a rerun of the former successful Ridiculous Days,” she said. “They haven’t been as successful as they were, but for years it was the thing to do.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com