The Labor Day Picnic

This year's Labor Day Picnic meld at Gas Works Park was a big success. About a thousand people enjoyed the nice weather and all the good times.

Hundreds of people lined the beaches. Some coming days in advance, sleeping in pup tents and fighting the elements to get front row seats to watch Joe Toro hang glide from high atop the Space Needle and to see the great Jim "The Beef" Dean water ski behind the Budweiser hydroplane. Unfortunately for those hundreds of people, Joe Toro did in fact jump from the Space Needle, but his hang glider caught a bad side wind and it took him many miles off course. 

When he came down, he was on the freeway between Tacoma and Seattle, and was arrested by the State Patrol for hitchhiking on an interstate highway. He was later released and taken by police to the picnic site. Another disappointment was "The Beef." While being towed on water skis behind the Budweiser, he hit a mid-channel buoy and went directly to the bottom. Divers were sent to recover Jimmy's body.

They found him in 100 feet of water with skis still attached. He was stuck in the silt and muddy bottom. They hooked him up to some air tanks and left him there until the following Monday, when a floating Manson crane was called in to pull him out. ! ! ! ! The majority of the people who went to the picnic all agreed that a good time was had by all, and would look forward to coming again next year.