Ohio towns plan New Year’s celebrations with local flavor

The city of Port Clinton rings in the new year with a giant descending fish — aka Wylie the walleye.

Forget about popping champagne. The residents of Marion will leave the bubbly at home and pop popcorn — what else? — on New Year’s Eve this year. Marion, 50 miles north of Columbus and a major producer of the salty snack, hosts its second New Year’s Eve Pop-n-Drop this month, with a giant popcorn ball falling from the sky at midnight.

Seventy miles north, in the small town of Elmore, residents will welcome the new year with another descending edible: An 8-foot-long illuminated sausage will be lowered from a utility pole to the cheers of the crowd.

“We are known for our lunch meats and sausages,” said Mayor Lowell Krumnow, by way of explanation. Elmore, in southwest Ottawa County, is home to Tank’s Meats, a century-old meat processor.

The tradition started in 2001, as town leaders tried to come up with innovative ways to celebrate the village’s 150th anniversary.

Both Marion and Elmore follow in the falling-food tradition of Port Clinton, which has dropped a giant fiberglass walleye from the sky for the past 13 New Year’s Eves.

Who says Ohioans don’t know how to party?

via Ohio towns plan New Year’s celebrations with local flavor – cleveland.com