The Jonton Gazette: Another Successful Oinking in the Year- By Leah Jones

 The Jonton Gazette: 

Another Successful Oinking in the Year- By Leah Jones

Oinking in the New Year Artist Rendering

In the south there are many things dropped to welcome in the New Year: a Peach in Atlanta, Moon Pies in various towns, and even a Pickle in Mount Olive in our very state of North Carolina. In the town of Jonton though, we don’t drop into a New Year we soar, with the annual Oinking in the New Year event. For those uninitiated, this is the last and first celebration of the Jonton social calendar where we send our town mascot Curly Jack, the flying pig, into the night of a new year. Please note this is not a real pig. 

    This event was first celebrated December 31, 1944/January 1, 1945 right before World War II ended. In attendance of the inaugural event was Curly Jack himself. Instead of fire works the locals shot of their shotguns at midnight.

This year’s event was a rousing success despite the chill in the air that promised snow. The event boasted many vendors from in and around the area. Little flying lemon pigs were found in many booths, a beloved good luck New Year token in Jonton this time of year. Food trucks offered an array of foods from Southern Comfort to Asian Street. The holiday ambrosias of  Hot Chocolate and Apple Cider were also flowing freely throughout the night, with also some stronger concoctions offered up in the Trout Brewing tent. 

We also had a few local notables in the crowd, one being Theodore Allcot, our former beloved mayor turned city councilman, and his beloved wife Sarah, with their children and grandchild. So good to see the Allcot presence still strong in Jonton. Also in attendance was Kelsey Barton and Tammy Watkins, the illustrious owners of that beloved establishment The Geeknerd Cafe. When asked about last week's incident when every patron’s devices were suddenly rendered into useless heaping lumps of technology Barton replied, “We’re perplexed ourselves. We’ve had electrical experts come in to investigate what may have happened to hopefully prevent it from happening again.”

The crowning moment of the evening came when the crowd gathered around the New Year pole for the final countdown. As Curly Jack began curling around the masses began oinking as is the tradition, until at the stroke of midnight our mascot reached his full apex. As the pole’s fireworks set off their crackles, the sound was met with the noise of other nearby fireworks and shotguns being shot off another year getting started with a bang.