0:02

So I grew up in

0:04

Minnesota where like most places

0:06

we have some sort of

0:09

odd local traditions. One or

0:11

that comes to mind is

0:13

Lutefisk. This is a food.

0:16

It is a kind of

0:18

fish jelly reviled by many

0:20

but also beloved by others.

0:23

And it is definitely a

0:25

kind of Minnesotan flash Scandinavian

0:27

dish. Or one of my

0:30

favorites still is the tradition.

0:32

Of when it gets really, really cold.

0:34

Like Negative Twenty Degrees. You take a

0:36

cup of boiling water outside and you

0:39

throw it into the air and it

0:41

just it becomes a puff of of

0:43

water vapor, never hit the ground. It

0:45

doesn't freeze, it just sublimated and it

0:47

had nothing. It is actually so cool.

0:50

Of course it is a very specific

0:52

Minnesotan thing because you have to live

0:54

somewhere where it actually gets to be

0:56

like Negative Twenty Degrees to. Those are

0:58

my stories from growing up in Minnesota.

1:01

but obviously these. Kinds of local traditions

1:03

exist everywhere and today our colleagues

1:05

are going to share some of

1:07

their stories. but where they grew

1:09

up? Like Nicky who brought an

1:11

Italian style wedding to the streets

1:13

of New York, or Chrissy who

1:15

has a particular childhood story to

1:17

share, Or Zach who who tells

1:20

us about his home town that

1:22

is inspired by the mythological bird

1:24

the Phoenix and it is not

1:26

in fact Phoenix, Arizona somewhere else.

1:29

Under duress and this is Atlas Obscura

1:31

a. Celebration of the world. Strange,

1:34

incredible and wonderous places. More

1:37

after this. How.

1:55

And Mickey and I'm on the chips.

1:57

Tina, Alison to scare. when

2:00

I was getting married, I really

2:02

wanted to incorporate traditions. I'm

2:04

half Sicilian Puerto Rican, my spouse is Puerto Rican,

2:06

and so we looked at a lot of like

2:09

old school traditions that don't even exist anymore

2:11

just to kind of bring it in and

2:13

incorporate into our New York City wedding. So

2:16

in Italy, in Sicily

2:18

specifically, back in the day you would

2:21

walk to your wedding from the house, have

2:23

a little procession. It wasn't like this official cultural

2:25

tradition thing, it was just that the villages were

2:27

small and that's how you would get to the

2:29

church. You would walk from your house to the

2:31

church. And I'd actually seen it a

2:33

few times when I was in Italy, seeing the

2:35

bride walking along the street, and I always had

2:38

that in my head. The church we

2:40

got married at in New York City is

2:42

about a mile and a half from our

2:44

house. So as a

2:46

New Yorker, I was like, oh I

2:48

can walk that, like I walked it before in

2:50

heels, no problem. But my bridal

2:52

party refused. They were like, absolutely not.

2:55

I were doing this in our dresses and

2:57

our heels. So we compromised and we took

2:59

the subway. And

3:04

in the end, very randomly unplanned, a

3:06

lot of my family ended up joining.

3:08

They all came to my house beforehand and

3:10

then they joined us in walking. So we had

3:13

this pretty big group walking down the

3:15

sidewalk. Now I got married

3:17

in August, so everyone was out.

3:20

We know all of our neighbors. My family's been

3:22

in the neighborhood for four generations, so they

3:25

all knew we were going to pass by. Everyone's

3:27

on their front porches. Our

3:29

neighbors were waving. Our florists popped out of

3:31

the shop when we passed by. Our pharmacist

3:34

ran out when he saw us. He said

3:36

to us, like, he's like, oh it's like

3:38

the old village watching you guys walk by.

3:42

And then again, it was warm outside, so

3:44

everyone was outside dining. Every

3:46

restaurant we passed, everyone burst

3:48

into applause. Cars were honking. It really

3:50

felt like the whole neighborhood came out

3:52

to see me off, which was really

3:55

cool. No

4:02

A passengers on the train it sounded three

4:04

care one were still to see as saying

4:06

congratulations to immediately switched cars like the team

4:09

and the doors for me and a wedding

4:11

dress and immediately turned around and went to

4:13

the next congress and then the third. They

4:15

just ignored that we weren't there. If they

4:18

come in they can like Stephen because the

4:20

gotham exactly a car and and they go

4:22

according to sit down and not look at

4:24

us which feels like about. Right

4:26

from her cities. Are seated

4:29

between to stop. To begin it was very

4:31

close with totally could have walked. All.

4:36

of our gas from waiting on the

4:38

sidewalks some known with inside it's hurts

4:41

me Definitely started late because of this

4:43

and everly outside side turn the corner

4:45

and like everyone's there and i us

4:47

one of the best memory that i

4:49

have that day. Single my friends and

4:51

family and and having the neighborhood cheer me

4:53

on. For

5:03

see him advertising sounds printer hear

5:05

it out of the scam my

5:07

knee tom countless and is from

5:10

I Like festival in Rochester New

5:12

York. Every

5:14

spring and early May were sometimes man

5:16

made depending on how the winner went

5:18

for my my courses and Highland Park.

5:21

Come to quell. Highland Park was

5:23

designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also

5:25

designed. Central Park and. In

5:28

the late eighteen hundreds Early nineteen hundreds, they

5:30

planted five hundred and varieties of live off.

5:32

Buses and over one thousand,

5:35

Two hundred individual shrugged. So.

5:38

As I said and made these com to

5:40

bloom and. It's a beautiful.

5:42

The fragrance is incredible

5:45

and. they

5:47

started throwing a huge party surrounding to

5:49

live off bloom so this is going

5:51

back again to her like early nineteen

5:53

hundreds and i used to go to

5:56

this festival and go to seal off

5:58

as a child with pick parents

6:00

and growing up I always thought about like this

6:02

has been going on for so long. They even

6:04

went when they were kids but now

6:06

when I think about how long this tradition has been

6:08

happening and how long the lilacs have been

6:10

blooming, I'm realizing that even my great-grandparents

6:12

would have gone to this. The

6:16

festival has evolved into having live music

6:18

every day, tons of food and drink,

6:21

art vendors, even a 10k race.

6:23

So if you ever find yourself in Rochester,

6:25

New York in May, come

6:28

see the lilacs. Hi,

6:36

I'm Zach Mortelucci, Director of Operations for

6:39

the Experiential Team at Atlas Obscura, and

6:42

I grew up in and around

6:44

a town called Phoenixville

6:46

in Pennsylvania. It's

6:48

like an old steel mill town

6:50

nestled on like the French Creek

6:53

and Schuylkill River in southeastern Pennsylvania.

6:55

And the town is called Phoenixville

6:58

and it gets its name from the Phoenix Iron

7:00

Works, which is an old iron mill that I

7:03

think dates back to like the late 1700s.

7:06

And they made like a lot of

7:08

iron products. I think they

7:10

made cannons for the Union

7:12

Army in the Civil War. I know

7:14

they made like iron beams that went

7:16

on to build bridges that we all

7:18

know around the world, including, I

7:21

believe, the Manhattan Bridge in New York City. So

7:24

the iron works, Phoenix Iron Works, is it

7:26

was a big part of the town, but

7:29

it ended up closing in the late 1980s.

7:31

And the town, because

7:35

of that, took like a pretty intense

7:37

economic downturn. But

7:39

just like the name suggests, the

7:43

town Phoenixville has since like risen from

7:45

the ashes and is just like bustling,

7:47

fun little town again. And

7:49

so about 20 years ago, the town

7:51

started to celebrate its history

7:53

and just like rebirth With

7:56

what they call and what they still

7:58

call the Firebird Festival. The

8:00

Phoenix is always been like a symbol

8:03

of the town. That mean I grew

8:05

up playing soccer with the and jersey

8:07

or have a fix on them as

8:10

festival was really focused around discuss Phoenix

8:12

the Firebirds. I take place in December

8:14

usually as nice egg there's the of

8:17

food. there's Krauss, spenders all sorts dusts

8:19

that The main event is centered around

8:21

eight a massive a wooden sculpture of

8:24

a Phoenix designs pile of word as

8:26

Caesar. Take some lights three months to

8:28

make it. it's like twenty feet tall.

8:31

It's super beautiful supra lab rats and

8:33

the whole town comes together to come

8:35

and watch as the late to phoenix

8:38

on fire. Said.

8:41

This mass is seen as guests. Turn.

8:44

Into a giant I a bonfire ah

8:46

and then ah over the next in

8:48

a couple hours into the next day

8:50

the bonfires and used to harden and

8:52

is not sleep birds that were made

8:55

in the weeks leading up to the

8:57

first on. The

9:00

Phoenix sculpture itself is like

9:02

super elaborate barry incidentally designed,

9:04

which I since makes it

9:06

even. More beautiful when

9:08

they burn it is are taking something so

9:11

beautiful and it's make this is a passing

9:13

moment. The something of a

9:15

inspired me about this tradition and about

9:17

watching a town come back to life

9:19

as I grew up and settles as

9:22

such. A fun way to honor that

9:24

history. It's remind people that we can

9:26

you know all rise back up from

9:28

the ashes are just like the to

9:31

like the phoenix that the gave his

9:33

name's our town. I'm

9:39

johan him a i know senior

9:42

producer on the Atlas Obscura podcasts

9:44

and my a weird muscles hurt

9:46

Us and his tractor. A day.

9:51

I grew up an accent a small town

9:53

in Missouri. With a lot of agriculture, they're

9:55

a whole lot of farming. Families in

9:57

the area and future for.

10:00

Of America or. As. I say

10:02

has a pretty big presence in the

10:04

local high school. It's this organization that.

10:06

Promotes agricultural educators and.

10:09

And every year as I say

10:11

would put on. Custard

10:13

A And on Tractor Day

10:15

all of the kids and

10:17

as I say would actually

10:20

derive their tractors to school

10:22

to high gloss. Supposedly the

10:24

point was said soon safety

10:26

infections, And have education about

10:28

maintenance. But honestly I am pretty

10:30

sure that everybody just one and an

10:32

excuse to roll up to school and

10:35

interact. Or s and a like

10:37

a fairly rural areas so they

10:39

were kids driving these tractors really

10:41

long distances to get to the.

10:43

School. I think that it would take some of them

10:45

like more than an hour to get there. And

10:48

the high school parking lot would be just.

10:51

Filled. With tractors mostly

10:53

like the super bright green John

10:55

Deere ones, but also some our

10:58

old school rather swans and I

11:00

remember parking my normal car was.

11:03

Really tough that day and one

11:05

year this also extended to promise

11:07

a kid in his day. It

11:09

actually drove a tractor to the

11:12

prom location. And they were wearing

11:14

a camouflage prince suit and dress.

11:17

It was amazing personally.

11:19

I'd never participated in Tractor Day.

11:21

By it. Honestly, I wish I

11:23

had me one else. Will I

11:25

get a chance to drive a

11:27

tractor to Workers flow? Now.

11:36

Of course we want to hear from

11:38

all of you. We know you have

11:41

weird home towns and weird local customs.

11:43

Tell us about it. Tell us

11:45

what happened in the place that you

11:47

grew up. Was there an interesting history

11:50

behind it? Why did it exist? What

11:52

was your relationship to the tradition

11:54

when you were growing up? and what

11:56

is your relationship to it now. Did.

11:59

It. play a role in the way you see

12:01

the world or the place you grew up. Anyway,

12:05

these are all things we want to hear from you. So

12:07

give us a call at 315-992-7902 and

12:11

leave us a message telling us your name and your story.

12:14

Just so you know, the mailbox will cut you

12:16

off after about two minutes. So just call back

12:18

if you get disconnected or you can record a

12:21

voice memo and email it

12:23

to us at hello at atlasobscura.com. I

12:25

cannot wait to hear from all of you. This

12:30

episode was produced by Manolo

12:33

Morales. Our podcast is a

12:35

co-production of Atlas Obscura and

12:37

Stitcher Studios. The production team

12:39

includes Doug Baldinger, Chris Naka,

12:41

Camille Stanley, Johanna Mayer, Baudelaire,

12:44

Gabby Gladney. Our technical director

12:46

is Casey Holford. This

12:49

episode was mixed by Luz Fleming. And

12:51

our theme and end credit music is

12:53

by Sam Tindall. I'm Dylan Suresh, wishing

12:56

you all the wonder in the world. I

12:58

will see you next time.