Pickle drops Saturday night
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on December 27, 2005 1:47 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Mt. Olive Pickle Co. will host its seventh annual New Year's Eve Pickle Drop at the stroke of 7 p.m. Saturday with a new pickle doing the honors.
The event is held at that time, organizers said, because 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time is midnight Greenwich Mean Time.
The pickle drop, held at the Corner of Cucumber and Vine in Mount Olive, is open to the public. Festivities begin at 6 p.m.
There will be entertainment and free refreshments such as hot chocolate, cookies and pickles.
Attendees are asked to bring canned goods for the Salvation Army's food bank.
The drop will feature a new pickle.
Mt. Olive spokesman Lynn Williams said the former pickle, which is more than 3 feet long, had more than 100 white lights on the outside.
The new one glows from the inside, she said.
This year's event also marks the beginning of Mt. Olive's 80th anniversary in 2006.
The company was established by local business people in 1926.
The privately held company today produces the second best-selling brand of pickles in the country.
The first pickle drop was held on New Year's Eve in 1999 when a handful of company employees and Mr. Crisp, the company's mascot, dropped a pool pickle into a brine tank to commemorate Mt. Olive's designation as the Official Pickle and Pepper of the Millennium.
The next year, the drop was held for employees and their families to mark the company's 75th anniversary.
The first public event was held in 2001, and attendance keeps on growing.
Ms. Williams said hundreds of people are expected to attend Saturday night.