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January 3, 2014
Croaker and dragons. They’re not just symbols for the town of Oriental – they’re how hundreds of people in town rang out 2013 and greeted 2014.Meeting of the dragons. The head of the New Years Dragon at left. That tail belongs to the Chinese Dragon. The two met up in the 11:30 running.The crowd around the New Year’s dragon. Partially obscured by a Dragon Master’s flag, is the Oriental croaker, suspended at the top of a sailboat mast, awaiting the midnight descent.As has been tradition for decades, the New Years Dragon sauntered up and down Hodges Street. He did that waterfront run twice, once at 8p and again at 11:30p. On that second run, he was joined by Oriental’s more serpentine Chinese dragon. At midnight, Oriental’s other symbol, the croaker, descended from the mast of a visiting sailboat at the Town Dock.
The croaker made its annual drop from a sailboat mast in to a waiting dinghy at The Oriental Town Dock. This year, the plywood croaker was surrounded by a simulated fog at the stroke of midnight.The croaker and the sailboat it came from and the dinghy where it landed.That sailboat offered more than a staging area for the croaker. The boat’s owner, Cliff Ryder stepped in to be the head of the dragon on its 11:30 run. Ryder took the dragon – and its trailing body and retinue — on an energetic sashay that, appropriate for a sailing town, tacked many times from curb to curb.
(When not sailing his boat south, Ryder is a base jumper and some of that sailing off of mountainsides could be detected in the dragon’s swoops.)
The dragon, with Cliff Ryder under the head, saunters past Garland Fulcher Seafood.Hands upon the dragon. A touch for good luck.Oriental’s Chinese Dragon rises over the New Year’s Dragon. The 11:30 run featured both dragons.More photos ahead of the big dragon’s run, the Chinese dragon and the humble croaker who dropped with precision this year.
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The dragon emerges from its lair, with visiting sailor Cliff Ryder wielding the head.One of many hands that reached up to the dragon Tuesday night for good luck in 2014.Word is that the good luck happens even if mittens are worn.A touch at the gum line.Robin Carberry, one of the Dragon Masters, bringing up the dragon’s tail.In the crowd awaiting the dragon, a smaller dragon danced to a drum.[page]
The dragon near the Provision Company.The dragon and one of the dragon masters, Turtle Midyette, in front of the Bean.Lynda Johnson leant some percussion to the event along with Oriental’s Drummin’ Dragons..An ever changing cast got under the dragon.Greg Piner provides spine for the dragon.
Most under the dragon added two legs. But there were exceptions.[page]
The Chinese dragon rises in the air near the Bean.The serpentine dragon towers over Hodges Street.The Chinese dragon and its team.Celebratory headgear along the dragon route.The dragon’s tail. The Chinese dragon will be back. Chinese Lunar New Year is coming on January 31.[page]
Dragon masters lead the dragon home.Poised under the Coldwell Banker building.In recent years, the dragon – and his team – had noticed that spectators were stopping right in front of the dragon in order to take photos of themselves with the dragon in the background. Word got out that morning that that kind of delay wasn’t much appreciated, and that the dragon asked if folks could take their photos from a different angle. By the time of the dragon runs that night, there were far fewer folks positioning themselves as human speed bumps while taking “selfies” on their phones. By way of appreciation, the dragon did linger outside his lair – at the Coldwell Banker building – afterward to pose for photos.
Those who’d just seen the dragon in the run on Hodges, stopped by his lair to get their photos taken.Maybe in 15 years Spencer Rogers or his friend could be the head of the dragon on a New Years Eve run. On Tuesday, they checked out the space while the dragon was at rest.Getting a chance to see the dragon up close — and still — calmed a few of the smaller spectators. One girl shared her discovery that the tongue was “not real.”[page]
A Croaker’s Journey
The croaker waits at the Town Dock curb for the halyards that would hoist him up the mast of Cliff Ryder’s boat.This year, a countdown clock was added to the croaker drop, making for more precise timing. At left is the boat’s owner, Cliff Ryder.Not a premature drop. That’s the reflection of the suspended croaker, in the water.The croaker deployed from the mast of the sailboat “Steamboat.”Waiting for the drop.Ahead, the drop.
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A few minutes before midnight a crowd gathered near the railing at the Town Dock. At right, Toni Leavitt runs the spot light…Jennifer Smart handles one of the two lines to steer the croaker in to a waiting dinghy..At midnight, the croaker hovered over the dinghy and earned a blast of simulated smoke.The smoke clears in 2014.Ralph Evey and Greg Tamplin were the croaker handlers in the dinghy.Hung over .., in a way different from most. After the drop, the croaker spent the night suspended over the deck of the sailboat, Steamboat and was still alight the morning of January 1.