Petaluma’s Past: Recalling a memorable Egg Day back in the Roaring Twenties

In Petaluma, in 1926, times were certainly changing.

Tomasini Hardware had begun featuring the new John Deere Manure Spreader, and according to newspaper advertisements of the day, demonstrations were held … in the store.

That must have been interesting.

Not to be outdone, our Schluckibier Hardware Co. had recently begun selling the Meadows Model ‘H’ Washing Machine, with a ringer that included, “a safety device” - presumably to keep body parts from being squeezed? To promote their new machine, Schluckibier’s window display sported a stuffed lion that reportedly opened and closed its mouth, “wagged its tail,” and roared. The idea, one supposes, was that the King of Beasts was drawing attention to the King of Washers.

But speaking of roaring.

In 1926, the Roaring Twenties were going strong, with such hot dance crazes as the Charleston, Black Bottom and the Cake Walk. The “Flappers” - with bobbed hair and short skirts, drinking illegal alcohol and smoking cigarettes in public - reflected a wave of major social and political change in the country. People were weary from WWI, and wanted to enjoy life again.

The times came to be called “The Jazz Age,” and women “set free” by such improvements as the washing machine, the refrigerator, the vacuum cleaner and the electric iron, felt they could pretty much do anything they desired. The advent of something called “birth control” broadened those thoughts as well. The times marked a major jump forward in the Women’s Liberation cause, and Petaluma didn‘t opt out.

The advent of the automobile had also become a force for social change, and there were several thousand of the vehicles in Sonoma County by ’26. And, even in the midst of prohibition, the imbibing of alcohol was wildly prevalent, as liquor had gone underground and was sold behind “Speakeasy” doors. Bootleggers - and eventually, organized crime - proved the Volstead Prohibition Act to be a false savior.

Meanwhile, our country was experiencing a “New Morality,” and it thrived.

Industrialist Henry Ford, anticipating his 1927 production of the famed “Model T” auto, had started his own revolution with an eight-hour workday, five-day week, at $5.00 a day, for something he called his “Assembly Line.” Ford also climbed aboard the band wagon, and encouraged women to work. Those women, having received the right to vote in 1920, were loudly making their voices heard.

Talk about roaring.

In 1926, the architectural world was going “Art Deco,” while the art world had morphed into “Impressionism” and “Surrealism,” with such names as Hopper, Dali, Picasso and Cezanne. While writers like Hemingway, Faulkner and Scott Fitzgerald were dominating the literary scene, the music world was swept into Dixieland and Ragtime, led by such greats as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and singer-dancer Josephine Baker.

“Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” was the big hit song that year.

In other news of the day, Walt Disney had just opened his studio in L.A., boxer Gene Tunney beat Jack Dempsey, George Burns married Gracie Allen, author A.A. Milne published “Winnie the Pooh,” and - to address a potent 21st Century issue - the first semi-automatic weapon was patented in 1926, too.

Well, At least, they didn’t have “bump-stocks” yet.

The nation’s move to urbanization, meanwhile, had become unstoppable, as 1926 became the first year in history that more Americans lived in cities than on farms. The reason? Farmers had not universally shared in the national prosperity of the twenties, and farm prices had fallen drastically as a result. In the 1920s, 6,000,000 farmers left rural life for the cities.

Through it all, Petaluma - still a small farming community then - was booming, with its poultry and egg production leading the boom. Magnus Vonson, President of our Chamber of Commerce in 1926, stated, “Every member of this community, regardless of whether he lives in the town or in the country, thinks mainly in terms of hens and cows.”

It was estimated that there were nearly 2,000 chicken farms in the Petaluma and Penngrove area, with an average size of seven acres, and our “C. of C.” had wisely hired a hot promoter named Bert Kerrigan to get the word out. Kerrigan quickly dubbed Petaluma “The World’s Egg Basket,” and it was he who first produced the annual “Petaluma Egg Day” celebration, complete with a parade and a Queen and a whole lot more.

The Egg Day of 1926 was - in Roaring Twenties parlance - a “Bees Knees” affair, which originally held in Kenilworth Park, with 8,000 in attendance. That’s 1,000 more than our town’s population! The event frequently featured a concert by the Petaluma Municipal Band, a free barbeque, games, stunts and contests, and a carnival with the name “A.B.C. Attractions” - with “a riotous act” dubbed “Adam & His Clown Mule.”

There were also a horse shoe pitching contests, and other races of interest - 50- and 100-yard dashes, sack races, egg-and-spoon races for both men and women. There was even a “Fat Man Race” for gentlemen over 200 pounds. In 1926, that event was won by “Chappy” Carpenter, who finished the race, according to written reports, “a bit out of breath.” Mel Acorne was the announcer, and Police Chief Flohr had wielded the starting pistol. Our Courier Editor commented that the contestants that year had showed, “much pluck, determination and guts.”

But certainly any Egg Day event must include a lot about eggs. So there was an “Egg Candling Contest for World Champion,” plus an Egg Rolling Race, an Egg Eating Contest, an egg-and-spoon race, a 6-mile Egg Day Marathon and a competition for the “Most Appetizing Pie or Cake Made With EGGS.”

There was even an “Egg Day Shelling” event, in which 59 of our local shotgunners laid waste to about 1,000 eggs.

Must have been some bodacious clean-up after that one!

In the afternoon, the Egg Day celebration moved to Center Park (at “B” and Main) for a street dance, and that evening moved again to the Petaluma High School Gym, for coronation of the Egg Queen - and more dancing. Attending in 1926 was someone named “Chief White Horse Eagle,” who had the honor of crowning the Queen.

The dance itself, bringing a perfect end to that Petaluma Egg Day, 1926, was colorfully described by one attendee as, “a rhythmic sea of harmonious motion - and great fun for all.”

(Historian Skip Sommer is an honrary member of the Petaluma Historical Museum, and Heritage Homes. You can reach him at skipsommer@hotmail.com)