Akron Ohio News - Python Day long on excitement

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Python Day long on excitement

7/12/2012 - West Side Leader

By Kathleen Folkerth

The Python Parade will take place in Peninsula July 21 at 1:30 p.m. Shown above are participants in a previous parade.

Photo courtesy of Diane Seskes

PENINSULA — Pythons both real and fabricated will be part of the village’s annual Python Day July 21.

The summer festival features dozens of free activities, all centered on a creature that is believed to have caused quite a ruckus more than 60 years ago.

“We have people from a ways away that begin early in the year contacting the library or someone in town to find out when Python Day is because they are planning their travels and want to be here when it occurs,” said Diane Seskes, of the Log Cabin Gallery, who is helping to coordinate the event this year.

The festival is a few years old, but the tale of the Peninsula Python has been told since the summer of 1944, when some residents reported finding strange tracks on their property. Others said they saw the creature, a huge snake estimated to be about 15 to 18 feet long, that was rumored to have escaped from a traveling circus.

According to a history of the python written by Randy Bergdorf, of the Peninsula Library and Historical Society and a Boston trustee, those who said they saw the python or evidence of its existence hold true to the story today. Many others think the story was a hoax perpetrated by Peninsula resident and writer Robert Bordner, whose account of the story appeared in the November 1945 issue of Atlantic Monthly.

Regardless of whether or not the story is true, it provides a good theme to bring the community together, according to organizers.

Seskes said among the more popular attractions at the festival is the chance to get up close with real pythons at Boston Township Hall, where Little Big Girl, a 15-foot python, will be joined by other pythons from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Rangers and volunteers from Cuyahoga Valley National Park also will be on hand with reptiles, amphibians and some skeletons at the Peninsula Depot Visitors Center from noon to 4 p.m.

Python-themed games and activities also will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Cuyahoga Valley Historical Museum on the second floor of Boston Township Hall. Visitors can learn about the real history of the Peninsula Python in the exhibit there and join the Python Posse by playing a game of Peninsula Python Pandemonium. Prizes will be awarded.

Python games also will take place at the Downtown Emporium, where the book about the python by George Hoy, with illustrations by Honore Gilbeau Cooke, is available for purchase.

This year, the Python Parade will take place earlier in the day, starting at 1:30 p.m. Festival-goers are welcome to take part in the parade, for which participants will gather at the corner near the Downtown Emporium.

“We’re also going to have a kazoo band,” Seskes said. “Everyone can go get a kazoo and play in the kazoo band and march up [state Route] 303.”

In addition, there will be entertainment and food throughout the village for visitors.

For more information and a schedule of events, go to www.explorepeninsula.com.

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